Ecuador confirmed that in April the province of Guayas registered 4,700 more deaths than usual

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.infobae.com/america/amer...e-lo-habitual/

Ecuador confirmed that in April the province of Guayas registered 4,700 more deaths than usual
Although the authorities affirmed that these deaths are not only due to coronaviruses, the state concentrates 70% of COVID-19 infections, and the country is among the 4 most affected in the region.
April 16, 2020

The Ecuadorian Government confirmed this Thursday a gap of about 4,700 deaths in the coastal province of Guayas, the one most affected by the coronavirus and where approximately 2,000 people usually die each month from different causes.

"In the figures that we have managed to cross with work, with the Ministry of Government and with the Civil Registry, we have approximately 6,703 deaths reported in these 15 days of April in the province of Guayas," said the head of the Joint Task Force. (FTC), Jorge Wated, in a virtual press conference.

In it, he indicated that the number of deaths in hospitals is "decreasing", which is a "very encouraging measure", but that, in contrast, the number of deaths reported in other registries seems to be much higher than normal.

Taking into account that the "usual monthly average (in Guayas) is approximately 2,000 people", the gap at this point would be about 4,700 dead above the usual, according to the numbers published by El Universal de Ecuador, which Wated attributed "different causes: Covid, alleged Covid and natural deaths."

"Within this harsh reality (...), we hope that in the next few days these figures will be reduced," he added, adding that the case of the province of Santa Elena (neighboring Guayas) is also being reviewed, where for a few days, an increasing number of deaths has been reported above the usual.

In her daily report, the Government Minister, Mar?a Paula Romo, indicated that up to now there are 403 confirmed cases in the country of death by COVID-19, 187 of which correspond to the province of Guayas.

There are also another 632 deaths "probable" from the pandemic, but which have not been confirmed by medical tests.

Guayas, of which Guayaquil is the capital, concentrates 70 percent of the 8,225 contagion cases confirmed so far in Ecuador, although there are around 11,000 tests carried out that will give a more reliable picture of the situation in the country in the coming days.

In that province, those infected for the moment amount to 6,754, followed by Pichincha with 736, Los R?os with 274, Manab? with 244, Azuay with 205, El Oro with 193 and Ca?ar with 117.

The rest of the provinces have less than a hundred each.

Ecuador is among the four countries most affected by COVID-19 in Latin America, with Brazil, Peru and Chile, and in deaths it was so far the second behind Brazil.

With information from EFE

[Shiloh]

Source: https: //laopinion.com/2020/04/16/coronavirus-en-ecuador-el-gobierno-confirma-mas-de-6-700-muertes-en-15-dias-en-guayas-la-provincia- more-beaten-by-covid-19 /

Ecuador confirms more than 6,700 deaths from COVID-19 in 15 days in the province of Guayas
The region has been the most affected by COVID-19 cases, with 70% of the country's cases
Ecuador confirms more than 6,700 deaths from COVID-19 in 15 days in the province of Guayas
The number of deaths in Guayas, Ecuador, has quintupled in 15 days.
BBC News World
By: BBC News Mundo | April 16, 2020

Suspicions that the death toll was higher than what authorities reported in Guayas, the province most punished by COVID-19 in Ecuador, have just found a very revealing piece of information.

The government reported that there was a gap in reports of deaths and that in the first 15 days of April there were about 6,700 deaths in that region, where there are normally 1,000 deaths per fortnight.

The authorities could not determine the causes of all the deaths, but infer that, in addition to the natural deaths, what is behind is the coronavirus pandemic.

The Guayaquil drama, which has more coronavirus deaths than entire countries and fights against the clock to give them a decent burial
Why does Ecuador have the highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths per capita in South America?
"The numbers fall short": the government of Ecuador admits that the coronavirus crisis is more serious than reported

"In the figures that we have managed to cross with work, with the Ministry of Government and with the Civil Registry, we have approximately 6,703 deaths reported in these 15 days of April in the province of Guayas," said the head of the Joint Task Force. (FTC), Jorge Wated.

"The usual monthly average (of deceased) is approximately 2,000 people" in Guayas, he indicated, so there were more than 5,700 deaths more than usual.

The spaces to inhume the deceased in Guayaquil were exceeded in a few days.

The city of Guayaquil went through an acute crisis in March after the forensic and funeral services were overwhelmed by the number of deaths.

"The bodies cannot be hidden": interview with the Ecuadorian minister of health about the Coronavirus pandemic

Authorities numbered the victims of COVID-19 at a few dozen, which contrasted with the demand for help burying the deceased.

Both coffins and corpses wrapped in sheets or plastic were exposed on the streets due to the lack of options to incinerate or bury them.

President Len?n Moreno has recognized that the health emergency was not well attended, mainly in Guayas, where 70% of COVID-19 cases are concentrated.

The population feared that there would be a health emergency due to the corpses exposed in the streets of Guayaquil.
The problem with numbers

Analysis by Mat?as Zibell, from BBC Mundo in Ecuador

The government of Ecuador began issuing reports on coronavirus cases in the country from the first half of March and by April 1, official figures spoke of 2,758 confirmed cases and 98 deaths nationwide.

But between the end of March and the beginning of April, images of people dead in homes and on the sidewalks of Guayaquil, the city hardest hit by the pandemic, began to circulate on social networks; the crudeness of the testimonies of the victims' relatives allowed us to intuit a much more drastic scenario.

In the middle of this gap between what the figures said and what the images showed, on April 2 President Len?n Moreno said that the data on the pandemic should be sincere: “As painful as this may be, the information must be transparent, there is to tell the truth. "

By that time, Moreno had already created a task force to collect the bodies in Guayaquil, in charge of the engineer Jorge Wated, who was in charge of informing this Thursday that more than 6,700 people have been buried in the province of Guayas during the first 15 days in April, 5,700 more than average.

This reflects not only the number of people who died from coronavirus, diagnosed or not, but also deaths from other causes that occurred in the midst of the collapse of all provincial public health due to the pandemic.

This greater approximation to reality was not only obtained thanks, as Wated said, to cross figures from cemeteries, civil registry and government offices. The current number of tests to diagnose coronavirus cases are, according to the official report, 27,868.

The official figures for April 1 indicated only about 9,019 tests carried out.