The pandemic continues to hit the south of the country and in Puno, the health centers cannot keep up with the number of patients. There are 7,271 cases of contagion in the Altiplano region.
Martín Ticona Maquera, mayor of the Provincial Municipality of Puno, demanded that the Executive declare a state of health catastrophe to the hospitals in the region and apply a regional quarantine, starting today, starting at 3 in the afternoon, with the in order to avoid more deaths and reduce the spread of the new coronavirus in said department.
The mayor also requested, through the coordinating minister of the Executive in the Puno region, the expansion of the Manuel Núñez Butrón Regional Hospital, which, he considers, should be implemented with 100 beds, because there are no hospitalized in other services.
Ticona argued that an average of 5 people dies every day in the Altiplano province, and many others even die at home due to a lack of medical attention. In addition, he indicated that this Monday, at least 18 citizens died and some of them lost their lives in the corridors of the hospitals.
In addition, he said that of the 120 oxygen cylinders that are in the health facility, 50% are recharged, so he offered to pay for the recharge and the transfer from the city of Arequipa.
According to the Health authorities of Puno, in this region more information and the use of protocols for the medication of the population is required to prevent it from self-medicating and which can cause the death of more people.
What is a health catastrophe?
According to the WHO, a health catastrophe is considered to be «any phenomenon that causes damage, economic damage, loss of human life and deterioration of health and sanitary services to a sufficient extent to demand an extraordinary response from sectors outside the community or area. affected. «
Puno in figures
To date, the Puno region registers 7,271 cases of contagion and 289 people died from COVID-19.