Guayaquil, the economic capital of Ecuador, has become one of the cities in South America most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. His province lists 73% of the 7,500 official cases in the country. "We see our dead fall in silence every day," sums up Cynthia Viteri, mayor of the city of 2.2 million inhabitants, which borders the Pacific Ocean. Here, it is not only the health system that has collapsed, but also the funeral services and the morgues. ”
For three weeks, to deal with the overflow of these services, the army and the police have been mobilized. The goal: to recover the very large number of corpses kept in private accommodation awaiting burial. In Guayaquil, nearly 800 corpses were collected by this special force, without the authorities specifying the causes of these deaths.
Confronted with this terrible situation, the inhabitants have posted on social networks videos of bodies left on the streets and calls for help from families wanting to bury their dead. The Ecuadorian government has taken charge of the burials in the absence of relatives for various reasons, including financial ones.
15 hours a day of curfew
They take place without the relatives of the victims, and the names of the deceased appear on an electronic portal created by the government so that the relatives know where their dead are buried. People living near the cemetery of Pascuales have posted videos showing trucks towing refrigerated containers entering the site, escorted by police.
another video from guayaquil, ecuador. bodies piled up in cemetery. #Guayaquil # Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/w99YLsmfAC
- Dan Bell (@thisisdanbell) April 11, 2020Another 631 corpses were collected from hospitals in Guayaquil. And the worst is yet to come: the authorities of this small country of 17.5 million inhabitants predict up to 3,500 deaths from Covid-19, only in the province of Guayas. A curfew of 15 hours a day is imposed there on the inhabitants. But despite the soldiers deployed in the streets, it is common to see street vendors, without masks, and queues in front of shops, without the recommended distance.
Much criticized, the government of President Lenin Moreno and the local authorities have admitted serious flaws. Mayor Cynthia Viteri, herself contaminated and who recovered, admitted the guilt of "all".