Peru has started limiting the times men and women can leave their homes in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Amid a strict quarantine in Peru, the country’s president Martín Vizcarra said on Thursday that men and women will only be allowed to leave their homes on designated days divided by gender. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, only men will be able to leave their homes to stock up. Women can go out on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Nobody will be allowed to leave home on Sunday.
“We have to get fewer people to be on the streets every day,” Mr Vizcarra said in a virtual news conference with his cabinet of ministers and experts.
Mr Vizcarra said the new measure, which will be in place until April 12th, would not impact people who have an emergency or are authorised to work during the quarantine, such as those working in essential food production, pharmacies and banks.
Peru has imposed tough measures to control the spread of coronavirus, and there have been a significant number of arrests for people breaking the quarantine. The country has recorded 1,414 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 55 deaths.
“Let’s make this additional effort to get into this curve and we can have control of the evolution of this disease,” Mr Vizcarra said.
Panama had already enacted rules this week ordering that men and women can only leave their homes on separate days.
Human rights groups said on Thursday that coronavirus lockdowns in Latin America that divide men and women in public put transgender people in legal limbo, citing the case of a trans woman in Panama fined for going outside on a day reserved for women. – Reuters