Religious sisters in Peru offer free quarantine housing for COVID carriers

July 15, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Lima, Peru, Jul 15, 2020 / 02:25 pm (CNA).- A group of Franciscan sisters in Ica, Peru, is offering a facility free of charge as temporary quarantine housing for coronavirus patients who are asymptomatic or experiencing only mild symptoms.

The temporary shelter was dedicated July 14 in La Tinguiña, Ica Province, one of the regions still under lockdown due to the large number of COVID-19 cases.

According to local media, the mother superior of the convent, Mother Rosa Fernández, made the commitment to provide rooms at no cost to infected people who need to quarantine until they are no longer contagious.

The rooms each contain their own bed and bathroom, with everything sanitized. The facility is the first of its kind in the region.

During the opening ceremony, Fernández asked God to bless the people who have made this initiative possible, as well as all who will use the facilities, that the Lord may restore their health “as soon as possible.”

“If our humble house can be of any use, well, here it is,” she said.

Local government and health officials were on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the housing facility, which will provide 30 beds.

The mayor of La Tinguiña, Juan Roque Hernández, stressed that Fernández is providing the housing for free.

“[She] is not charging us a dime for the room,” he said.

In previous statements to local media, Mayor Hernández stressed that the temporary housing complies with healthy and safety protocols, and its use help create “an epidemiological fence that reduces the number of cases in the region.”

The mayor stressed that this initiative also seeks to raise awareness among the people on the importance of temporary housing for people with COVID-19 in order to prevent the spread of the virus in the community.

According to the Ministry of Health, Peru has had more than 330,000 cases of the novel coronavirus with more than 12,000 deaths. The country ranks fifth worldwide in the number of COVID-19 cases, and the Ica region has more than 9,000 cases to date.

To prevent the pandemic from advancing, the country’s government declared a mandatory national lockdown from March 16 to June 30. However, some areas remain under lockdown due to the high number of new daily cases.

 

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Related Articles

No Picture
News Briefs

Mexican bishops: The cry of migrants is the cry of the Church

May 2, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Mexico City, Mexico, May 2, 2017 / 12:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the context of their 103rd Full Assembly, the Mexican Bishops Conference released a statement on the suffering on migrants, calling for efforts to fight corruption and promote a dignified life.

In a communiqué released April 27, the Mexican bishops said that “we hear in the suffering of the migrant the voice of God which, like a cry, is calling out to our hearts and invites us to action.”

It is the cry, they said, “of those driven by poverty or violence to leave behind their homes, to work honestly and contribute to the development of the country they have come to, but on their way and even in their destination, they are obliged to live in the shadows, suffering isolation, mistreatment, racism and exploitation.”

“The cry of those who are detained… the dramatic cry of the children and their parents who see their family ripped apart by deportations.”

It is “the cry of maladjustment and the helplessness of those repatriated who have to start over their lives. These are truncated lives and dreams. These are traumas and resentments that can fuel violence.”

“The cry of all of them is the cry of all of us as a Church. It’s our cry! And, if we are human, it ought to be everyone’s cry,” the Mexican bishops said.

They emphasized that the suffering of migrants “requires us to overcome the isolation of individualism that makes us vulnerable…we will only respond to this cry when we work together for a decent life for everyone.”

Everyone should have access to “an education that forms persons and citizens,” as well as “the opportunity for a decent job and a fair wage,” they added.

“And so it is urgent to fight corruption and impunity in any environment, since these things destroy trust, limit commitment and inhibit development,” they said.

“Although some voices are sowing pessimism and discouragement, we Christians are encouraged by the light of the Risen Christ, who has conquered evil and death,” the Mexican bishops said.

They noted that “the efforts of many men and women encourage us with their personal integrity, their family life and their creative service for their neighbor, (they) make it possible for this Mexican society to not remain in darkness.”

 

 

[…]

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Religious sisters in Peru offer free quarantine housing for COVID carriers - Catholic Mass Search

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*