LATEST NEWS
Perú COVID Update
April 1, 2022
The initial Omicron wave has passed and the BA2 Omicron variant has arrived but not in force, so Perú has a very low current COVID prevalence. Hospitals and ICUs are no longer struggling. Although public health restrictions are being lifted in a slow incremental fashion both nationally and regionally, they are still significantly more limiting than in the US. COVID data on the Ministry of Health website is up to date but much of it tends to be cumulative for the pandemic rather than a current snapshot. To their great benefit, a full 79% of Peruvians are fully vaccinated (as compared to the U.S. at 65%) with 37% boosted. Neither quarantine nor testing is required of international air travelers from the US if they document full vaccination status, the same required for domestic flights. Masking is required almost everywhere – including outdoors, either a KN-95 or double masking with fabric and a surgical mask. These are required to enter any building and even on the street. Many indoor spaces also require proof of vaccination, booster included for those over age 40. In summary, things are cautiously looking up with more modifications anticipated in a month. HBI travel has returned to normal within the above limitations and we’ve just begun to host North American partners. We’ll remain nimble with future changes inevitable.
DAILY UPDATE
A note about the daily case counts – the Peruvian government has stopped reporting daily cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 deaths. We will do our best to keep track of the changing severity and complexity of the pandemic in Perú. However, between our website updates – should you have any questions or want more information regarding HBI’s outreach efforts and response to the pandemic, please contact us at: info@hbint.org
Want to track cases in Perú? Tracking cases in Perú is becoming more and more challenging. The best reference for data (although often delayed in reporting by up to 2 days) is the MINSA website. See: https://covid19.minsa.gob.pe/sala_situacional.asp
For information on the impact of the pandemic in other Latin America nations – check out the Council of the Americas website, although information is not updated everyday. Check out updates at: https://www.as-coa.org/articles/where-coronavirus-latin-america
For more information on HBI’s recommendations, please read the following briefing document from the Health Bridges Medical Director, Dr. Robert Gehringer. Please contact the Health Bridges team with questions about your planned service learning projects or travel with HBI.
General Information on Coronavirus and COVID-19
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
Mass General Global Health (a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical school):
https://globalhealth.massgeneral.org/covid-19/
Pan-American Health Organization:
https://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?lang=en
World Health Organization:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
World Health Organization Situation Reports:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports/
U.S. State Department Travel Advisories:
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/
Feeling Thankful
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneOne of the boys in the Casa Girasoles really needed a dentist. He was scared. The pandemic has made it very challenging to get in to see a dentist in Perú. However, things opened up last week and we were able to get him seen, not once, but THREE times! His teeth, well – they were bad. […]
For JD
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneIt is no secret, especially for those that know me – I love professional bike racing. I watch races from Europe a few times per week. It’s a passion. Recently, however, I’m finding it harder and harder to watch the events. Races in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain – the crowds are a fraction of their […]
No Turning Back
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneGod may be in the details, but the goddess is in the questions. Once we begin to ask them, there’s no turning back. Gloria Steinem I had to mail a couple of packages the other day. It had been months since I was inside the postal annex store in our neighborhood. The owner, a dynamic, […]
COVID response in Perú
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneWe have never done a Go Fund Me project before. Heck, we’ve never been through a global pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic challenges in Perú are decimating the healthcare system in the country. We feel a compelling need to respond. We’re working with our medical and healthcare professional colleagues in Lima on a pilot project. Check out our Go Fund Me project […]
Building Bridges
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneI bet there are a lot of us who are closely tracking the COVID cases in Latin America. The reports coming out of Manaus (a city of over 2 million people in northwestern Brazil) are incomprehensible and altogether a clarion call to the rest of Latin America and the world. This backdrop makes what happen over the past two […]
Connections
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by AdminToday, January 31, Perú re-enters a period of quarantine and inmovilizaciones sociales obligatorias. For the next two weeks, significant parts of the country will be under lock-down orders. There will be nothing easy about these new restrictions. For many, the simple fact of their lives is this – theres is a need to be out-and-about […]
January 28
/0 Comments/in COVID-19 /by AdminOn January 27th, the Peruvian government announced a new tiered approach to increased inmovilizaciones sociales obligatorias throughout the country. The new measures (see graphics above) will take effect on Sunday, 31 January and are scheduled to last until 14 February. What these measures will mean for the areas designated as “extreme level” is a return […]
January 20, 2021
/0 Comments/in COVID-19 /by AdminThe U.S. inaugurated a new president, and Perú finds itself struggling to come to terms with a second wave of COVID infections. In spite of a forecasted second wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections for past 3-4 months, Perú is in the midst of rapidly escalating cases and a faltering healthcare infrastructure. Starting on Tuesday, 19 January […]
Suffering in the Shadows
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneI’ve been wrestling with writing this blog post. Wrestling because the last thing I ever want to do is misrepresent a child or harm their dignity. I am very sensitive to objectifying the lives of the children we are called to serve. This, however, is a story that must be told. In many parts of […]
We Can’t Forget
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneWhat now feels like a lifetime ago, January to be precise, I met a man in a small community in the high mountains outside of the Sacred Valley of Cusco. His case and life circumstances are complicated. I wrote a blog post about our encounter in February that captures a bit of the detail.
We are on the way, the permanent way. By Dr. Roberto Tarazona, Senior Health Advisor
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by AdminVery early, almost at dawn, the Peruvian television news showed us an unimaginable scene: hundreds and hundreds of people sleeping on the streets of Lima, faces tired from the cold, hunger and despair. Women carrying their children in their arms, sleeping on cardboard. The elderly, young people, adults: people like us and like our families […]
Building Bridges
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneThe COVID-19 pandemic has made it really hard to stay focused on all the immediate and urgent needs – and plan for the bigger future. This is particularly important when it comes to building opportunities for the older boys who ‘graduate’ from the Casa Girasoles program. They are getting older – in-spite of the social isolation and mandatory quarantine, and we need to […]
It is not suppose to be easy
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneThings are really tough. I am convinced this is true for all 7.5 billion people on the planet. The challenges are, however, more profound and impactful for the poor of this world. This is especially true for the people we serve in Perú. The families living in extreme poverty with children living with disabilities and medically fragile conditions are […]
We’re a Family
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneOne thing I am finding extremely important in this very uncertain time – staying connected to our HBI team. Today, on two continents in 20 different locations – all 38 people who make up the HBI team met on a Zoom internet call. It was the first time, virtually or physically we’ve gotten our whole team together . . . and, it […]
Building Bridges
/8 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneThis morning I was going through my desk, as I hunker down for a long period of working from home. I found a bunch of old pictures. Some of the photographs were from a medical outreach campaign we did well over 20 years ago. A medical outreach project to a community where we still work […]
We’re Building Bridges
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneThere is an expression in public health parlance. It says – if the U.S. and Western Europe sneeze, the rest of the world will get the flu. Well, the sneeze has been felt around the world and things in Latin America are challenging to say the very least. Perú has declared a national state of emergency. The country is on lock-down. […]
March 11, 2020: The President of Perú released an Emergency Decree
/0 Comments/in COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneThe President of Perú released an Emergency Decree, published in the official newspaper El Peruano. The decree helps to shore up public health and emergency response and states that “those who enter the national territory [Perú] from countries with an epidemiological history will be subject to isolation for 14 days.” Currently the United States is […]