As of Monday, Peru had more than 123,900 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 3,600 deaths - placing it second after Brazil in number of cases and deaths in Latin America.
But the virus still exploded.
About 85% of Peru's intensive care beds with ventilators are currently occupied, according to government figures, and overcrowding in hospitals is feared.
"This situation is not only a health emergency, but a health disaster, defined as a situation where the pandemic has exceeded the response capacity of the health sector," Dr Alfredo Celis of the Medical College told CNN en Español from Peru.
How did a country that reacted confidently and seriously to the pandemic end up like this?
Needs vs. quarantine measures
The deep inequality in Peru is one of the reasons, according to Dr Elmer Huerta, Peruvian doctor and contributor to CNN en Español. "What I learned is that this virus exposes the socio-economic conditions of a place," he said.
Many poor people in Peru have no choice but to venture out of their homes to work, eat, or even bank.
For example, only 49% of Peruvian households have a fridge or freezer (61% in urban areas), according to the country's 2017 census. This translates into a need for many to visit the markets daily for food as they cannot get their supplies, said Huerta.
"You are supposed to avoid human contact in a society where you cannot stay at home," said Huerta.
On April 14 - about a month after Peru enacted its mandatory home stay policy and implemented a curfew - CNN affiliate TV Peru showed footage outside of a market on the outskirts of Lima. Buyers stood in line for hours and a large mass of people moved. Most wore masks, but social distancing seemed impossible.
"We have to endure (the crowd) because there is no other way," a woman in line told TV Peru. "Otherwise, we will not have food. We have nothing to eat, which is why we came here."
On that day, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country was 10,303. Today, it is 10 times higher.
Unexpected consequences
People also ended up crowding banks as they attempted to access coronavirus relief funds.
The government's stimulus package to help millions of Peru's most vulnerable families was a good idea, but its distribution was ill-conceived, said Kristian Lopez Vargas, Peruvian economist and assistant professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
In a report from last year, the agency that regulates Peruvian banks said that only 38% of adults had a bank account. Lack of access to the financial system means that the majority of aid recipients have to go to banks in person to get their money.
"It was not difficult to anticipate the behavior of people in their attempt to access this aid," Lopez Vargas told CNN. "Instead, these policies have caused unnecessary damage by enticing people to gather in large crowds at the banks."
Many Peruvians also live and work in a way that simply cannot be reconciled with social estrangement, he said. According to Lopez Vargas, more than 30% of Peruvian households live in overcrowded conditions, with four or more people sleeping in the same room.
And more than 72% work in the informal economy, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Information of Peru. For those living on a daily basis in the informal sector, earning an income often depends on going to work and not on isolation.
This, combined with the needs of millions of people for food and other items in crowded markets, "was an explosive mix," said Lopez Vargas.
And now?
Friday, President Vizcarra extended the state of emergency until June 30, maintaining mandatory self-quarantine and curfews across the country. It was the fifth time that emergency measures have been extended. But this time, the extension was associated with permission to reopen some businesses, including services like salons, food delivery and dentistry.
Peru's priorities for implementing health directives also seem to have changed since the declaration of the state of emergency. In early April, Vizcarra said that during the first weeks of the house arrest warrant, up to 3,000 people had been arrested for disobeying the measures for a few days. On Monday, he announced that the priority would be to enforce health protocols on the country's markets.
A lesson learned from the pandemic response is that people need to change certain "social behaviors that have done a lot of damage," he added.
"This type of behavior is individualistic, selfish ... ignoring what's going on around us, and precisely what brought us to this situation, not just in Peru, but around the world," said Vizcarra.
But Huerta, the doctor, and Lopez Vargas, the economist, warn against blaming people too much. The underlying problems that the pandemic has exposed are not new.
"While this may seem like a mystery to some, it is not," said Lopez Vargas.
