Guayaquil (Ecuador) (AFP)

With hundreds of corpses in housing due to lack of space in the morgue and overwhelmed hospital and funeral services, the coronavirus is hitting Guayaquil, the economic capital of Ecuador, which has become the symbol of the chaos caused by the pandemic in a poor country. .

Ecuador (17.5 million inhabitants) is, after Brazil, the second most affected country in Latin America by the Covid-19 pandemic. Officially, there are 7,500 cases and 333 deaths. He declared the health emergency and the closing of the borders.

But just in Guayaquil, port of 2.7 million inhabitants on the Pacific coast (Southwest), Jorge Wated, head of a special force deployed for three weeks by the government to collect the corpses indicated that "the number (of bodies) recovered in dwellings with special force has exceeded 700 ".

In total, this special force, police and military, collected 771 corpses in homes, to which are added 631 bodies in hospitals with morgues full, he then said on Twitter, without specifying the causes of these some 1,400 deaths.

According to official figures, the province of Guayas concentrates 72% of coronavirus cases, and Guayaquil, its capital, alone has around 4,000 Covid-19 patients.

The special police and military force was created after the collapse of the Guayaquil mortuary services, which hampered burials and burials while a daily 15-hour curfew is in force across the country.

- Bodies in the streets -

For days, hundreds of corpses were left at home, even on the streets, wrapped in black plastic. Residents broadcast videos of abandoned bodies and calls for help from families wishing to bury their dead on social media.

The government took care of the burials when relatives were unable to do so for various reasons, including financial ones. Jorge Wated said Sunday that the remains of 600 identified people had been buried.

Burials take place without the relatives of the victims. The names of the deceased are posted on an electronic portal created by the government to let relatives know where their dead are buried.

Neighbors of the Pascuales cemetery have posted videos showing trucks towing refrigerated containers entering the site escorted by police.

Due to lack of space in the morgues, the municipality of Guayaquil had containers placed near hospitals and the forensic police which serve as a deposit for corpses.

And the worst is yet to come. According to statements by Mr. Wated almost two weeks ago, "medical experts unfortunately estimate (...) that deaths due to Covid will reach in the coming months between 2,500 and 3,500, in the province of Guayas alone" .

President Lenin Moreno announced on Sunday that he had decided to cut his salary and that of other state officials by half in the face of the economic crisis linked to the pandemic and the fall in international oil prices.

In Guyaquil, the poverty rate reaches 11.2% according to official figures for December. Unemployment and underemployment affect 20% of the working population.

The country is expected to register a contraction of at least 4% of its economy in 2020 because of the coronavirus and the fall in oil prices, said Sunday the Minister of Economy Richard Martinez. The authorities initially expected growth of 0.7% this year, after a decline of 0.08%.

Ecuador is currently deprived of oil exports by ruptures on its two pipelines, the repair of which will take a month according to the authorities.

Under program with the International Monetary Fund, the country last week asked for a moratorium on the payment of $ 811 million in interest on its public debt, which is approaching $ 41.8 billion, in order to free up resources to fight against coronavirus.

The country experienced a severe social crisis in October (eight dead) after the doubling of fuel prices - finally canceled - following the removal of subsidies. Moreno transferred the government to Guyaquil and accused his predecessor and ex-ally Rafael Correa (2007-2017) of "activating" a "destabilization plan" helped by Venezuela.

© 2020 AFP