As the spread of COVID-19 catches fire across much of America, two smaller South American countries have been hit just as hard, if not harder. Peru and Chile have extraordinarily high numbers of cases for nations their sizes.
Peru has the sixth-highest number of confirmed cases in the world at 357,681. Chile ranks eighth based on the same measure at 333,029. Each figure is higher than the United Kingdom’s 295,372. Confirmed cases continue to grow quickly too. In Peru, they rose to 4,091. In Chile, the figure was 2,099.
Fatal cases in Peru stand at 13,384, while the figure is 8,633 in Chile. Each figure is considered undercounted because of a lack of ways to collect data from the poorest parts of their cities and from remote areas.
The high number of cases is extraordinary because the two countries are so small, based on population. Peru ranks 43rd with a population of 32,510,453. That is about 10% of the United States. Chile’s population is 63rd in the world at 18,952,038, or about 6% of America’s.
The confirmed case and death counts in Peru and Chile will continue to grow rapidly. Neither country has a strong medical system, and each is terribly poor.
While the United States considers its COVID-19 spread with horror, two much smaller nations are suffering tremendously as well.
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