<p>LIMA, Peru — The swimmers began gathering even before dawn glimmers on Pescadores beach, plunging into the Pacific surf for one of the few athletic endeavors permitted under Peru’s strict pandemic restrictions.</p>
<p>Swimming pools have been closed for more than a year, but government has since Oct. 30 allowed open-water swimming, even if relaxing on the beach is banned to prevent mass gatherings.</p>
<p>Forty-three-year-old Lorena Choy said swimming “relaxes me, unstresses me. … It helps a lot psychologically.”</p>
<p>Swimming coach Víctor Solís, 47, said he estimated that the number of swimmers out each morning has multlplied fivefold recently.</p>
<p>Peru is one of the countries hardest hit, per capita, by COVID-19. Hospitals remain overwhelmed and oxygen remains in short supply.</p>
<p>“We don’t stop hearing bad news all day long, and that’s a little bit of the reason why we need to escape,” said José Echeandía, a 54-year-old lawyer, after swimming more than an hour in the chilly waters.</p>
<p>Robert Yatto, 56, has been swimming at the beach for more than three decades, and lately uses a Captain America wetsuit.</p>
<p>Before the pandemic, the beach alongside the capital was a favorite for the working classes, but the swimmers tend to be wealthier people with access to cars or those living nearby.</p>
<p>Peru, with nearly 32 million people, has reported more than 1.7 million cases of the new coronavirus and more than 60,000 deaths.</p>
