Health Minister Jorge López ruled out this Sunday that the mandatory use of masks in public spaces will be eliminated, despite the decrease in the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 in the country.
“According to the studies we have from the National Institute of Health and Epidemiology, the mask is not going to be removed yet, we cannot remove it.”, he pointed out from the Parque de las Leyendas, where he attended an activity for the Day of the Peruvian Child.
“We know that we are going down in the number of patient cases, but that does not give us the stability that we can have a new wave. So it won’t go away”, López underlined when consulted by the press.
López took the opportunity to urge parents to take their children to vaccination centers so that they can be immunized against this dangerous virus.
A few weeks ago, the Minsa ordered that people over 12 years of age can already receive the third dose of the vaccine, if five months have passed since the second dose.
Ugarte in favor of keeping masks
The former Minister of Health Óscar Ugarte also spoke hours before in favor of maintaining the use of the mask in the country.
“I think it’s premature to propose not wearing the mask anymore. Other countries did it last year and relapsed. European countries have presented fourth, fifth and sixth waves, in the case of Germany, and had to adopt precautionary measures, such as the case of the use of the mask”, he stated on RPP.
Ugarte added that “Currently, there are countries that have effectively relaxed the regulations to a large extent, because their reality is different, their level of vaccination is much higher and, therefore, protection is guaranteed at a higher level. That is not the situation in Peru or in most countries in the southern hemisphere.”.
What did a group of congressmen ask for?
Last March, a group of congressmen sent an ex officio letter to the President of the Council of Ministers, Aníbal Torres, to annul the mandatory use of the mask in open spaces. Along these lines, they also ask that the vaccination card no longer be presented to enter institutions or commercial establishments.
“The population has received with great enthusiasm the lifting of a series of restrictions, the resumption of face-to-face school classes and the measures that allow economic activities to be carried out without prohibitions. However, we believe that some measures are maintained that are unrelated to the current situation”, reads the March 15 letter.
The letter was sent by the congressman of Avanza País, Alejandro Cavero, and was accompanied by the signatures of Patricia Chirinos, Adriana Tudela, Norma Narrow, Alejandro Muñante, among others.
