Coronavirus: in Ecuador, Guayaquil overwhelmed by corpses

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Facing Covid-19, Ecuadorian hospitals and funeral homes are completely overwhelmed. In Guayaquil, the economic capital and epicenter of the epidemic, the authorities had to create a special team to collect the corpses, sometimes abandoned on the streets. On Sunday, nearly 800 bodies were recovered from accommodation.

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Nearly 800 corpses were collected from homes in Guayaquil, the economic capital of Ecuador, by a special force made up of police and military, an official said on Sunday. A special force created by the government in the face of the chaos triggered by the pandemic in Guayaquil , a large port located on the Pacific coast and where hospital and funeral services are overwhelmed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ecuador, second most affected country in Latin America

The country of 17.5 million inhabitants is, after Brazil, the second most affected in Latin America by the pandemic. According to the latest assessment, there are 7,500 cases and 333 deaths. He declared the health emergency and the closing of the borders. The province of Guayas concentrates 72% of cases and Guayaquil, its capital, alone has around 4,000 patients with Covid-19.

" The number (of bodies) we have collected in homes with the special force has exceeded 700, " first said Jorge Wated, who heads this team, during a virtual press conference from Guayaquil. A little later, he indicated on his Twitter account that this number was now 771, to which are added 631 bodies which were in hospitals, whose morgues are full.

Mr. Wated did not specify the causes of these 1,400 deaths that occurred during the health emergency declared in Guayaquil because of the pandemic.

Dead bodies abandoned in the streets for days

For the past three weeks, this special force has been removing corpses from homes after the collapse of the Guayaquil mortuary services, which resulted in huge delays in funerals and burials, while a 15-hour curfew is in effect in all the countries. Faced with this shortage, the cardboard industry offered thousands of cardboard coffins and prisons were also used .

In recent weeks, hundreds of corpses have been left at home, even on the streets, wrapped in black plastic, for days. Residents broadcast videos of bodies left on the streets and calls for help from families wishing to bury their dead on social media. In addition to this creation, the Ecuadorian government took care of the burials in front of the impossibility of relatives to do it for various reasons, including financial.

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno announced on Sunday, April 12, on his Twitter account his decision to cut his salary and that of other state officials by half. This in the face of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and by the fall in international oil prices.

Refrigerated containers serving as a deposit for the remains

Burials take place without the relatives of the victims. Their names are posted on an electronic portal created by the government, so that relatives know where their dead are buried. Jorge Wated said Sunday that the remains of 600 identified people had been buried in two cemeteries in the city.

In the absence of space in the morgues, the municipality of Guayaquil had refrigerated containers placed near the hospitals and the forensic police, which served as a deposit for the corpses. Residents have uploaded videos of trucks towing refrigerated containers entering cemeteries.

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(With AFP)

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