Ecuador: the number of victims of coronavirus could be multiplied by six

Text by: RFI Follow

Ecuador is the country in South America most affected by the coronavirus epidemic. This Thursday morning, the Minister of the Interior Maria Paula Romo still spoke of 403 confirmed victims and 632 probable, because not tested. But in the afternoon, the numbers changed.

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With our correspondent in Quito, Eric Samson

Jorge Wated is the head of the unit that collects corpses in the city of Guayaquil . Some 700 people have already been buried, 700 more are expected to be buried in the coming days. But the excess mortality is frightening. “  By combining all the data from hospitals and the civil registry, we had 6,703 deaths during the first two weeks of April in Guayaquil and its region. The average monthly death rate is normally 2,000 per month, so around 1,000 every two weeks. That makes us 5,700 more deaths in two weeks…  ”

Even if we don't die only from Covid-19, the pandemic is the only explanation for this excess mortality illustrated by these images of corpses abandoned in the streets of Guayaquil . Faced with the crisis, the President of the Republic Lenín Moreno decided to cut his salary and that of the entire government in half, and send a humanitarian bill raising taxes to the Assembly.

"  Thanks to these contributions, " he defended, " we will be able to help more than two million families with a voucher of 60 dollars monthly." Families who depend on their daily income, which has now disappeared, such as street vendors, hairdressers, gardeners…  ”

Envied to the @asambleaecuador the Ley Humanitaria that motivated the solidaridad y ayudará to 2 millones of familias pobres. The tasa de crecimiento histórica de contagios pasó from 28.1% to 4.4% in los últimos 10 días, sobre 27.768 pruebas hechas. ¡A seguir con disciplina! #EcuadorSolidario pic.twitter.com/Vb9hDA90yZ

Even if the growth rate of infected people has dropped to 4.4% in recent days, the country is not yet doing enough tests to have a clear overview of its real health situation. President Moreno has declared fifteen days of national mourning in support of the families of the victims of Covid-19.

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• Ecuador
• Coronavirus
• Lenín Moreno

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