A third of the 2.7 million inhabitants of Guayaquil, the epidemic focus of Covid-19 and the economic capital of Ecuador, contracted the coronavirus, said Thursday the mayor of the port city, Cynthia Viteri.
“We conducted a statistical study to find out the situation of Covid-19 infections in the city. On a scientific basis, it is stated that 33% of the inhabitants of Guayaquil have been infected, ”wrote the council member on Twitter.
The main concern of Cynthia Viteri and her municipal team "is to pay attention to the 67.3% of the population (of Guayaquil) who have not been contaminated so that they are not victims of the virus".
These estimates come from the results of 1,543 tests carried out by the municipality, with 95% reliability, she said.
Second wave risk
"There are half a million infected people in the city who, if they move unprotected and do not isolate themselves, will simply cause the second wave of contamination" in the second Ecuadorian city, said to the press the mayor, herself recovered from the disease.
Ecuador is one of the Latin American countries most affected by the new coronavirus, with nearly 30,300 cases, including 1,654 deaths. Authorities are also reporting another 1,705 deaths likely due to the same disease.
In Guayaquil, central government figures showed 8,900 people infected.
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The government announced on Monday that it would dissolve a team of police and military forces created in late March to remove and bury the bodies of those who died in Guayaquil due to the collapse of the health and funeral systems. During its first three weeks of work, this unit took care of 1,400 corpses, recovered from homes and hospitals. The images of bodies left in houses or abandoned on the streets of certain cities had alerted the world to the health situation in the country.
VIDEO. Ecuador fails to bury its Covid-19 dead
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