MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru and the virus: crematoriums working on 24/7 shifts and queues of funeral cars outside hospitals

The dire statistics come even though Peru has been in lockdown for nine weeks, paralyzing the economy

Peru has become the second Latin American country after Brazil to reach 100,000 coronavirus cases, according to Health Ministry figures out on Wednesday. The number of dead from Covid-19 has also passed 3,000, with only Brazil and Mexico have suffered more. Both cases and deaths have tripled since April 30.

The dire statistics come even though Peru has been in lockdown for nine weeks, paralyzing the economy. The vast majority of cases are in Lima and its port Callao, where one third of the country's 32 million people live.

Peru's health system is overwhelmed and teetering on the brink of collapse, with public hospitals facing drastic equipment shortages.

“It's like a horror film,” Miguel Armas, a nurse at the Hipolito Unanue hospital in the capital Lima said. ”Inside it seems like a cemetery given all the bodies. Patients are dying in their chairs (or) in their wheelchairs.”

Mr Armas and fellow hospital staff protested in the streets on Wednesday demanding better safety equipment.

Peru has 7,500 people receiving hospital treatment for Covid-19, according to the latest figures.

Lima's crematoriums have had to work day and night to deal with the dead, while queues of funeral cars have formed outside some hospitals in the Callao neighborhood.