LIMA (Reuters) – Peru’s President Martin Vizcarra confirmed on Tuesday that confirmed cases of the new coronavirus have now exceeded 50,000.
Vizcarra said a total of 51,189 cases had been detected, in a press conference in the capital Lima, and confirmed 1,444 deaths.
Copper-rich Peru was one of the first Latin American countries to shut down to prevent the virus spread yet nonetheless within ten days saw a doubling of its confirmed cases to become the region’s second worst-hit nation after Brazil.
(This story corrects total case number in second paragraph)
(Reporting by Marco Aquino, writing by Aislinn Laing, Editing by Franklin Paul)
