Santa Claus delivers gifts to children with covid-19 in Peru on a fire ladder

In the Pan-American Village of Lima, converted into an emergency hospital, Santa Claus delivers Christmas gifts to 126 children sick with covid-19. Instead of the reindeer-drawn sleigh, the plump bearded man climbs to the top of his rooms perched on a telescopic fire ladder. In the midst of an outbreak of the pandemic in Peru, the surprised children rejoice with the anticipated arrival of Santa Claus, and they look out of the windows to receive gifts from him. The town, which housed the athletes of the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, currently houses about 1,200 patients and more than a thousand employees, including 325 doctors and 354 nurses. "We have made a special greeting of encouragement for Christmas to all the families who are recovering little by little," Santa Claus, played by comedian Paul Suárez, 44, said. On the telescopic ladder of the fire truck, and with a mask over his white beard, Santa Claus reached the last of the 20 floors of the bedroom towers on Tuesday, distributing the gifts that he was taking out of his bag. Meanwhile, and at ground level, about 20 nurses in white or light blue coats and Christmas caps danced to the rhythm of Christmas carols. There are 126 hospitalized minors in the village. Their symptoms are mild, but they were hospitalized because their parents were also infected with the virus, which has killed more than 201,000 people in Peru, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in the world. Two of the seven towers are intended for children. The others are occupied by adult patients and hospital employees.