COVID-19 Ecuador Update 7
28/April
24,258 confirmed cases; 2,083 deaths by covid-19 (871 confirmed, 1,212 suspected for respiratory failures)
Another good news article...
I have been trying to find a way to write the polemic numbers that this article mentions...
"In Guayas province, 13,162 deaths were recorded between March 1 and April 22, 2020, the registry shows. That compares with 3,771 deaths for all of March and April 2019, and 3,459 deaths during the same period in 2018."
"By Illingworth’s analysis, Guayaquil suffered 6,948 likely coronavirus-related deaths between March 21 and April 22, or more than 217 a day. In normal, non-pandemic circumstances, Illingworth said, 38 people would be expected to die each day in Guayaquil."
This same issue has been debated and the government called out by the citizens on this a number of times...the numbers just are not adding up.
We have several different confirmed cases and deaths numbers, all from the same government...like I have mentioned, this is because of the countries poor health system, and lack of capacity to provide tests for it's citizens, let alone the dead.
The hair rising numbers this article report, are totally true, as far as the government's official birth and death registry. We're looking at 10,000 deaths above the normal, in a one month period, in the whole country. Most of these have not died of resperatory failure after having contact with someone infected, for which they are not in the countries second death toll list, but obviously most of them have died, either directly or indirectly, from the virus... Possibly from health complications not attended to, ambulances not reaching them on time because of the shut down, etc.
One friend of ours in the capitol city shared that because the elderly are not allowed out of their houses, many who are living alone have no contact with other people, and there's a fear that they could die and no one would know.
The biggest thing affecting many is hunger and starvation. I am not kidding...we have contacts and ministries that we work with in the heavier hit cities...the story is always the same, more are having problems (and possibly dying) from hunger than from health complications. Not being allowed to work for the last seven weeks has drastically affected those that live from day to day in this developing country.
We are starting to coordinate with different ministries and donors so as to be able to provide food baskets to those that are most affected by the virus, both locally, and in the bigger cities that have been hit the hardest.
In the next few days I will be writing an email with more details on what we are doing, and what we need to continue to help these people. If you feel lead to help people suffering, both with physical needs and touch them spiritually at the same time, then please consider Ecuador as the perfect place to do so, we are ready to partner with you to reach those in need in this time of crisis!
.
