Quito (AFP)
Ecuador, a small Andean country and one of the most affected in Latin America by the pandemic, has crossed the threshold of 15,000 deaths from Covid-19, the government announced on Saturday.
The latest official report shows 15,004 deaths, or 86 per 100,000 inhabitants, and 257,115 cases listed to date, or 1,477 per 100,000 people.
The first case was detected on February 29, 2020 in Guayaquil (southwest), the economic capital of this country of 17.4 million inhabitants, which was then the epicenter of the pandemic in the region.
The hospital sector of this port on the Pacific coast was quickly overwhelmed, with corpses piling up in homes and lying in the streets, at the peak of the pandemic between April and May.
Ecuador launched its vaccination campaign two weeks ago, with a first batch of 8,000 doses from the pharmaceutical alliance Pfizer / BioNTech, intended for medical staff and residents of retirement homes.
Travel restrictions have been eased, despite an increase in cases following the end-of-year holidays and holidays, and the general elections scheduled for Sunday have been maintained to appoint a new president and the 137 deputies of the unicameral parliament.
© 2021 AFP