In Ecuador, Quito begins to emerge from eleven weeks of containment

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, very affected by the new coronavirus, started on Wednesday to break the containment decreed eleven weeks ago, and which seriously affected the economy of the country with more than 12 billion dollars in losses., In this capital of three million inhabitants, urban transport, where social distance is marked, has resumed little by little, as well as face-to-face work, but limited to 50% of the staff. The curfew has been reduced to eight hours a day, while restaurants and shopping centers have been able to reopen.

" I am not afraid " of the contagion, said José Silva, a 74-year-old pensioner who was waiting to take a municipal trolley bus, after having been " locked up for more than 70 days ", in his accommodation in the north from the city.

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Quito, with nearly 3,800 cases, is the most affected city in Ecuador after the port of Guayaquil (southwest), the economic capital of the country on the Pacific coast, which has at least 9,800 confirmed cases and whose health and funeral had collapsed in April.

“ Let's protect ourselves, take care of the most vulnerable, respect the health and hygiene instructions in order to reactivate ourselves with all the precautions. Everyone's life depends on everyone, "said President Lenin Moreno on Twitter. The capital having gone from red to orange, private vehicles can circulate there three days a week, instead of two. The construction and textile sectors have already been authorized to resume their activity. The large tables have disappeared from the shopping areas of the shopping centers, and only two people can sit together.

In stores, clothing fittings are allowed. But " everything that has been affected remains isolated for at least three hours, then goes through a steam disinfection process before being put back on the clothes racks, " said a seller. More than half of the country's 17.5 million inhabitants are still in the orange zone, only two of the 221 cantons being classified as green zones where the curfew is reduced to five hours a day.

Almost 41,000 cases

Ecuador is one of the countries most affected in Latin America by covid-19 with nearly 41,000 cases, including 3,486 deaths (20 per 100,000 people on average), in addition to 2,221 deaths probably due to the virus, but not tested. . This small country is the fourth by number of deaths, behind Brazil which has more than 209 million inhabitants, Mexico nearly 127 million and Peru about 32 million.

The government declared a state of emergency in March, closed the borders and decreed a fifteen hour daily curfew against the virus, which was first detected on February 29. Domestic passenger flights resumed on Monday, when the curfew was first reduced to 11 a.m., with international flights scheduled to resume on Thursday.