As many Seventeen police officers have tragically died in Peru, reports have shown.

The officers died after contracting the novel coronavirus while enforcing the nation’s pandemic lockdown, officials and state media said.

According to the Agence France Presse, AFP, authorities admitted earlier this week that at least 1,300 officers had been infected by COVID-19.

On Saturday new interior minister Gaston Rodriguez, who was sworn in a day earlier after the sudden resignation of his predecessor when the infections tally emerged, said: “We have 17 deceased police officers nationwide, 11 of them in Lima.”

The high number is linked to “the exposure that police officers have when intervening with people who violate the measures issued to contain the spread of the coronavirus,” state news agency Andina said Saturday.

Peru has been on lockdown since March 16.