In this sense, the statesman stressed that last Monday 20,414 samples were taken and —over the course of a week— the amount tripled to reach 67,000, which led to an increase in the number of positive cases, as the amount of samples are larger, of course.

Downward trend

However, the President noted that the rate in the number of new COVID-19 cases went down from 21% to 20%.

"Despite the fact that the absolute number of positive cases has increased due to the number of samples, the trend tends to decrease, as shown in the specific cases of hospitalized patients," he indicated.

The Head of State explained that —two weeks ago— the rate of patients, who were hospitalized for coronavirus, used to grow on a daily basis by 22%.

"In the evaluation made until yesterday by the team of experts (from the Ministry of Health), the daily rate of hospitalized citizens, who have been affected by COVID-19, has decreased from 22% to 14%. Thus, there is a decrease in hospitalization cases," he underlined.

In addition, President Vizcarra reported that the daily rate of patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) also fell from 22% to 17%.

Moreover, he pointed out that this same downward trend behavior was recorded in the rate of deaths, which has decreased from 29% to 14%.

El presidente @MartinVizcarraC, acompañado del Consejo de Ministros en pleno, informa sobre la situación del Estado de Emergencia en el #Día29 y las acciones que realiza el Gobierno para contener la propagación del COVID-19. En vivo: https://t.co/YSlA0KI1jw https://t.co/1L9IEDr9P0