Peru received international acclaim for being one of the first countries to implement a comprehensive package of measures to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government imposed a general lockdown, combined with social protection measures--mainly cash transfers and the distribution of food parcels. This was an attempt to mitigate the impact of the lockdown, in a country where 70% of the population works in the informal sector. Yet despite this, the transmission rate remained high, and as of early June Peru's COVID-19 mortality rates were amongst the highest worldwide. The pandemic has shed a stark light on Peru's failure to guarantee the right to health and the limits of the tools used to assess the health system's performance. Over the past two decades Peru has been praised for introducing a series of reforms aimed at achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC), primarily through the expansion of health insurance across low-income groups. Nevertheless, reforms have failed to overcome the historical fragmentation of the system, where access to services is determined by income, gender, and geographical location.
Good Health Indicators are Not Enough: Lessons from COVID-19 in Peru