Maria Alvarez, 24, stands near a window next to a room where a wooden box adorned with a pink coloured cross that contain the cremated remains of her husband who died from the new coronavirus in June, sits on a shelf in the home of friend who has offered her a place to stay, in Lima, Peru, Thursday, July 30, 2020. Maria, who had an asymptomatic case of COVID-19, gave birth to her first child the day before at the National Perinatal and Maternal Institute in a special ward for mothers infected with the virus.

Coronavirus pandemic makes birth more lonely for women in Peru

Before she gave delivery in Peru’s largest maternity hospital, María Alvarez closed her eyes and made one request by way of her face masks.

“Where’s my husband?″ she stated. “I need my husband to come back.″

But the child’s father, Marco Martínez, had died a month earlier than from the novel coronavirus.

María, who had an asymptomatic case of the virus, was giving delivery to her first baby, a daughter, at 24 in a particular ward for moms with COVID-19.

Lima: Maria Alvarez, 24, heart, sits with different moms who’re contaminated with the brand new coronavirus, as they wait to be handed their infants earlier than being discharged on the National Perinatal and Maternal Institute in Lima, Peru, Thursday, July 30, 2020.
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Peru’s National Perinatal and Maternal Institute has devoted about half its services to take care of contaminated pregnant girls. Between April and the beginning of August, greater than 2,000 contaminated sufferers gave delivery there, with 120 newborns testing positive.

One in 4 individuals in Peru’s capital of 10 million individuals might be contaminated with the coronavirus, based on a research printed by well being authorities in July, with greater than 483,000 confirmed contaminated throughout the nation of 32 million and greater than 21,000 useless.

Despite sporting private protecting tools and taking different measures to keep away from an infection, 400 of the two,000 employees within the institute have additionally been contaminated, stated its director, Enrique Guevara.

Doctors and nurses attend to births, however the institute has barred companions or different relations, and pregnant girls are moved by way of the hospital in wheeled beds protected by clear covers to dam the virus from spreading.

A neonatologist examines a new child child on the National Maternal Perinatal Institute in an remoted space reserved for moms contaminated with COVID-19, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, July 29, 2020. The 24-year-old first-time mom wept throughout her labour not simply from ache, however as a result of the child could be born with out her father. The child’s father died from the brand new coronavirus in June.
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Martínez returned to Peru in November after 5 years working in an electronics retailer in Chile.

Alvarez turned pregnant, and after the coronavirus hit Peru, each went to work for a pal stitching face masks.

Martínez turned sick and died in June. Alvarez took a test that got here again positive, however by no means skilled signs.

She felt contractions on July 29, and rushed to the hospital with a set of blue clothes for the boy that docs had stated was coming. To her shock, she gave delivery to a lady.

Days after giving delivery, as she recovered in her remoted mattress, she stated she had nonetheless not determined what to call her daughter.

“What I do know,″ she stated. ’’Is that I don’t need her to endure like her mom and father.″

(This story has been printed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content. Only the headline has been modified.)

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