Germany on Thursday donated medical equipment to Peru worth $1.17m to help improve medical care in remote parts of the Amazon in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The donation is meant to help some 90,000 people from indigenous and rural sectors in the Peruvian Amazon.
Among the equipment delivered are oxygen concentrators, digital thermometers, oximeters and 32,500 tests for coronavirus that will be used by health personnel in the area, who will also receive training in prevention, health promotion and referral of serious cases of this disease.
The donation is part of the bi-national agreements signed in August and aimed at providing primary health care to communities in the Amazon basin.
In Peru, there are 51 indigenous peoples, a third of which live in the Amazon regions of Ucayali with 16 indigenous of them, and San Martín with three more. These regions alone host 422 indigenous communities, but only a third of the have a health center.
An estimated 60% of this indigenous population live in poor conditions, aggravated by the pandemic.