Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than two million lives, leading to the collapse of health systems around the world, especially in low-income countries. As the pandemic progressed, the imbalance between the supply of and demand for medical resources created ethical dilemmas regarding how best to allocate available resources. Discussion: Peru did not have the necessary resources to deal with a pandemic like that of COVID-19, which is why its health system collapsed, showing the highest mortality rate worldwide during the first wave. Faced with the saturation of hospital services, the dilemma presented was: when, how and to whom should the few available medical resources be allocated? From a bioethical point of view, health professionals should seek to save as many lives as possible, giving priority to patients with better prognosis and those who could contribute to thi...