“I would like to extend my warmest regards to the president of LOGODI and the staff. In 2012, I visited Korea at the official invitation of LOGODI. I have fond memories of Korean culture, its tremendous economic development, the infrastructure built and responsible environmental policy.
COVID-19 has had a great impact in Peru. Peru, as an emerging country, faces many difficulties in managing this pandemic. There have been deficiencies in hospital infrastructure, biomedical equipment and working conditions for health personnel at the national level, with the greatest impact in the interior of the country. There is a collapse of health services in many regions, high demand for intensive care beds, mechanical ventilators, and biosecurity supplies for the protection of health personnel and the general population.
It is evident that there is little national planning and a lack of state and public policies in sensitive sectors such as education and health. In addition, acts of corruption at the national and regional level are notorious.
The country is in quarantine for about 90 days and we have more than 5000 deaths from COVID-19 at the national level (Jun/10/20). Peru has begun to implement strict measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease. President Martín Vizcarra said that previous control measures had produced good results "but not what was expected". Unfortunately, we have many difficulties in dealing with the virus. The scenario is different in a country with such a varied geography, for example, there is a massive spread of COVID-19 infection in the north of the country, the jungle area and the capital, Lima, where the inhabitants do not follow the government's containment measures.
As a university professor and general surgeon, I have to give my students the class online, this was done only in rare cases before the pandemic. Today, the pandemic is forcing school and university systems to resort to learning on virtual platforms. There are many challenges, limitations and needs for the use of virtual platforms in the education sector. In the hospital where I work as a general surgeon, I have been suspended from my care activities because I belong to the groups at risk of contracting COVID-19.
Finally, I believe that Peru, on the way to the bicentennial of its independence, should work technically, planning and implementing national public policies, respecting cultural diversity, decentralizing in areas such as education, health, rational exploitation of natural resources, strategic resources, research, technology and others”.