schema:articleBody
| - A Peruvian cabinet minister has tested positive for COVID-19 after leading the delivery of humanitarian aid to the country's Amazon region, the government said Thursday. Production Minister Rocio Barrios, 46, is the second cabinet minister to contract the virus. Agriculture Minister Jorge Montenegro, 54, fell ill in May but has recovered. "After receiving the positive result, the minister has been recovering and complying with her social isolation," the ministry said in a statement. It did not say if Barrios is hospitalized or recovering at home. Barrios had visited the Amazon region of Loreto, one of the areas worst-hit by the coronavirus. The government on July 1 lifted a mandatory national quarantine in 18 of the country's 25 departments where it said the coronavirus had passed its peak. The order includes Lima, despite the capital being home to 70 percent of the country's infections. Six million people, one-third of the South American country's population, remain under quarantine. Peru is the second worst-hit country in Latin America after Brazil, with more than 312,000 cases, and ranks third-worst by COVID-19 deaths, with more than 11,000. cm/ljc/db/dw
|