'Hubs of infection': how Covid-19 spread through Latin America's markets
19 May, 2020Authorities have struggled to enforce social distancing at the trading centres. At one Lima market, 79% of vendors had coronavirus.
Four out of five merchants at a major fruit market in Peru have tested positive for coronavirus, revealing shocking levels of infection – and prompting fears that Latin America’s traditional trading centres may have helped spread Covid-19 across the region.
Seventy-nine per cent of stall-holders in Lima’s wholesale fruit market tested positive for Covid-19, while spot tests at five other large fresh food markets in the city revealed at least half were carrying the virus.
The results came as local authorities from Mexico City to Rio de Janeiro struggle to enforce social distancing and sanitary measures at wholesale and retail markets, which are mainstays of local economies
Latin America is wrestling with a surging death toll from the pandemic: Mexico and Brazil – whose presidents have been accused of downplaying the epidemic – both saw record single-day mortalities last week.
