COVID-19 Ecuador Updates 1
12/March
Ecuador has declared a state or emergency in the face of the advance of the corona virus here in Latin America.
School's are all cancelled until further notice, public gatherings and church events of 1000 people or more are all cancelled, and people arriving in country from a lot of high contact countries are required to be under a personal, 14 day quarantine.
There are around 20 confirmed cases of the virus in country, all within the last week.
Although the measurements taken aren't necessarily bad, and show great preventative measures on behalf of the government, please pray that panic does not ensue from these announcements.
So far, there have been no 'panic buying' or shortages, except for facemasks and hand gel, (and gasoline, but that was from the financial crisis that was declared the other day...with oil going for over a third of the projected price, the government has declared a financial crisis and some extreme measures to offset further government funding shortage).
Please continue to pray for us, for Ecuador, and the people that we minister to all across this jungle area!!
14/March
With now a total of 28 confirmed cases and 2 deaths from the coronavirus, Ecuador has canceled ALL international travel to and from the country, as well as prohibited all gatherings of over 30 people, including church services and the marches and walks for Holy week, a huge thing in this Catholic country.
Please continue to pray as things develop!
Public gatherings have also now been limited to 250 people. In the big cities, the shopping centers are being cleaned out of food, etc ..but as of yet this has not been the case in the Amazon region.
16/March
With around 40 confirmed cases now, the government has updated their state of emergency to include the following measures:
Starting on midnight Sunday, no foreigners are allowed into the country. Starting on Midnight Monday, no residents or citizens will be allowed in the country. All incoming traffic via air, land and sea will be prohibited entrance into the country. 5 ports of entry along the borders are open, only for incoming and outgoing trade, produce, etc... There is no restricción on people leaving the country, but with no airplanes or busses coming in, there will be none to leave the country. Most airplane companies have suspended their flights to and from Ecuador.
On Saturday, groups of more than 30 people have been prohibited. This includes churches, birthday parties, outings, etc. People have already been arrested for holding big birthday parties/local soccer games. People were encouraged to stay home. On Sunday evening, seeing how so many people, rather than stay home, took the occasion to go on vacation (over 100 busses from the area with the heaviest concentration of infected people took over 4000 people to a well known beach...they were stopped, sanctioned and ordered back home). The new order is that unless it be for work, buying food/medical supplies, going to a doctor or a confirmed emergency, no one is allowed to travel on the roads, which will be enforced by the police and military, if necessary.
Any stores which hold more than thirty people must be closed, unless they sell very specific items, such as medicines, etc...in which case everyone in the store must keep at least a meter distance between themselves and any other person, including workers. All restaurants must not allow anyone in their buildings, but they are allowed to deliver to homes.
The shortages of TP, food, etc are starting to hit even the jungle areas...we are thankful to be close to the source of fruits, vegetables, meat, etc ..but even those are sold very quickly in the morning.
It is much worse in the bigger cities, where even stronger restrictions are being applied by the local mayors...public busses can only allow people sitting, no one standing(it is common for a bus, during the busy hour, to have 40 people sitting, and the same number crammed in the aisles standing) to restrict personal contact.
Dry law is also in place, which prohibits the sale, purchase and drinking of any alcholic beverage.
Anyone that dies from the coronavirus must be creamated, along with their clothes and bedclothes.
We are pretty much one step away from martial law.
We have been in touch with the different kids clubs, churches and Sunday schools that we work with, as well as communicating as much as possible with people in the different communities. We do have a wide net of people we work with, all over the country, but thankfully up to this point everyone is well and safe, PTL!
Please continue to pray for us and Ecuador!!
18/March
Overnight we went from 58 to 111 confirmed cases..
Starting midnight tonight, all the before mentioned measures will be implemented..
Curfew from 9-5, restriction on driving during the day for certain cases only, and for those buying food and medicine restriction on what days you can drive, per your liscence plate number.
1-3 year jail time for those who are in disobedience to the laws under the current state of emergency and exception.
Tena today was crazy, people buying everything they could get their hands on..pick up trucks with the bed loaded with TP; meat, rice and vegetables going scarce...
20/March
367 with the virus, 5 dead.
Curfew is extended from 9-5 to 7-5.
Police have already arrested a number of people for breaking the curfew, and for traveling when they're not supposed to. There have also been arrests for price speculating.
The fine for all of these are big monetary fine, plus 1-3 years jail time.
