This Country Has the Worst COVID Death Rate

Peru, followed by Belgium

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 1, 2020 3:00 AM CDT

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This Country Has the Worst COVID Death Rate — Cemetery workers carry the coffin that contains the remains of Wilson Gil, who family members say died of COVID-19 related complications, to a burial site at the Martires 19 de Julio cemetery on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Peru is No. 1 on a list you really don't want to top: the highest coronavirus death rates in the world. Peru has lost 873 per million people to COVID-19, Axios reports. The South American country surpassed Belgium, the previous holder of the top spot, which has a death rate per million people of 854. The rest of the top 10:

United Kingdom: 611
Chile: 588
Italy: 587
Sweden: 576
Brazil: 568
US: 533
Mexico: 498
France: 469

While Belgium spiked sharply between March and April, it dropped just as sharply after locking down; it has not recorded more than 15 deaths in a single day in three months. Peru, on the other hand, locked down before it had recorded a single death; its death toll has climbed slowly—but it continues to rise, and is currently at 28,277. Officials say that may be an undercount, and the true toll could be close to double that. In an awful double hit, Bloomberg reports Peru also reported the world's deepest economic contraction in the second quarter as a result of the lockdown measures. (More coronavirus stories.)

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