COVID-19 Ecuador Updates 3

2/April

3163 total confirmed cases. 3302 suspected cases. 120 dead confirmed from COVID-19 (see below) 3139 confirmed non-cases 65 people released from hospital (see below)

Ecuador currently has a 4% death/confirmed case ratio, and 0.02% of its population are infected. Over 70% of the infected and dead are in one province, whose capitol is the commercial capitol of Ecuador, Guayaquil. Guayaquilanians in general have not been holding to the 'stay at home' order or the curfew, and projections are for 2,500-3,500 deaths from this province alone.

Ecuador does not currently have the COVID-19 tests it needs, and there is a pile up of people waiting to be testing, which affects several areas: The government cannot confirm how many people are actually infected, the suspected cases have always been more than the confirmed cases. There have been hundreds of deaths in the past week (over 500 in Guayaquil alone) and they cannot test all of them as to the cause of death (see below), death rate is suspected to be higher than confirmed. Even the people that no longer present symptoms, and have been cleared to leave the hospital, have not all been confirmed recovered (see below), hence why the statistic says released from hospital, and not recovered.

There is a lot of controls all around the country, police controlling the vehicular movement by the licence plates numbers, and the people by their national ID number, to make sure that these are being done on their designated day, to lessen the amount of people out and about. Apart from that, in the markets where you buy fruits, vegetables and meats they are fumigating every several hours, and most of the stores and pharmacies don't allow anyone inside, you talk to them and make your order from outside.

The bigger chain stores allow a certain amount of people inside, after disinfecting your shoes and hands, but the lines are long to get inside...I waited almost an hour to buy a few things on Monday. Several markets have been closed because of people that worked stalls in them coming down with symptoms of the virus, and a few of the bigger ones in the bigger cities have closed their doors to regular customers, and are only selling in bulk to smaller stores.

With a beginning of a new month, this country that has a very low income rate is having many problems, individual and governmental, financial and legal. Many people whose work has been canceled have been laid off, which under most cases has been declared illegal, but the government is also concerned about smaller companies going under from having to pay workers and yet not having any income. There have been hundreds of cases of people not being able to pay their rent this past month, which has caused many problems as well, for both sides involved. The government is trying to find a balance between the two sides, and make the coming recession as less painful as possible. Price speculation, although illegal, is rampant...with people both raising prices, and/or forcing people to buy at a larger quantity in order to make a sale. Government contractors are not exempt, as one person is being processed for putting down that he bought special face masks at $12 apiece, 4 times their price.

Government workers are being laid off or quitting, for various reasons, including misuse of finances, being sick with the virus, or misuse of power and/or taking advantage of the situation. The mayor of one tourist town, Banos, yesterday refused entrance to his city to several uniformed officers coming back to sleep a little in the police academy there, because they were 'possibly contaminated'. The police Major has responded by withdrawing all personnel from the city.

There has been no lack of political moves and maneuvers during this time, especially by the socialist ex-president Rafael Correa, whose trial for mishandling government funds, among other things, although having been put on hold because of the virus; they are trying to find a way to continue with the trail, as the country is very divided on if he is guilty or not; with many looking to him as a savior from a glorious age, and others as the reason the country is in the financial difficulties that it finds itself.

There is a lot of social unrest, people blaming each other or the government, and many people who are irresponsible.

The number of people arrested for breaking curfew is still higher than the number of confirmed cases, with people making every excuse to travel and be out and about. There are also a lot of apparently unfounded stories going around, especially in Guayaquil, about deaths not being attended correctly, about the government hiding the number of deaths, about people burning bodies on the streets, etc.. Most of these stories are false, people further adding to the panic for political reasons or satire pleasure; but the government has changed the law to allow funeral homes to be exempt from the curfew, and continue with their work.

Hospitals are starting to overflow with the confirmed and suspected cases, which is part of the reason why people are dying in their own homes, mostly from other causes not related to the virus. This is also the reason the actual number of cases is probably higher than what the statistics say, and for people who have recovered from symptoms, even if not necessarily from the virus itself, are being allowed to leave the hospitals.

In face of this all, and with the original state of emergency deadline up in two days, the government today has issued updates as to how we are to proceed:

The state of emergency will continue until further notice, and these measure could be extended even further. People are encouraged to stay at home as much as possible, and continue to take preventative measures when they go out and come back home.

Schools will continue to be canceled all the month of April. At-workplace jobs will continue to be canceled until April 12th. International and inter-provincial travel will continue to be prohibited for both public and private transportation (There is a special piece of paper, given by the government, that allows travel between provinces for essential personnel and special cases, including health workers, truckers, press, exportation companies, and financial institutions)as well as special cases, including people traveling to airports to leave the country to go to their homeland (we personally have been able to help several people get the needed paperwork to travel to the airports, where a number of charted flights to the US, as well as Canada and other countries, have been flying out)

Suspension of all public massive events for April and May (the number of people was not specified, but it will be very low) (we are letting the different kids clubs and churches know that to be safe, everything should continue to be canceled until further notice. The bible seminary next month has also been canceled)

The Curfew and restrictions on traveling will continue as is until the 13th of April, when the government will make the changes necessary so as to allow, in the places they consider it safer to do so, people to get back to work and try and lessen the financial pressure on the people.

During this time, the government will be working on a formula to assign to each of the provinces, and then apply different mobility restrictions depending on the 'color coding' of the province. The provinces with a higher case rate will continue on with the current restrictions in place, whereas the ones with a low case rate will allow some mobility from home to work and back again, applying certain measures and restrictions, depending upon the province.

The government has also issued a declaration that ALL local governments must comply with the declarations set forth by the health council established by the government to be over the affairs of the country during this state of emergency, or face the consequences. The government has vetoed the motion of a 24 hour curfew.

On a personal level, we are doing well...the boys and Cinthia are very restless for being inside these last 3 weeks. Cinthia is also learning a lot about homeschooling :-) At times she says she would prefer it,and at times shes at her wits ends..lol

The local stores in the small town of Puerto Napo where we live are down to the bare basics...and less and less stuff are getting restocked.

I can travel on my bike two days a week, and buy two days a week...but only on Monday do they coincide. This past Monday I traveled to Tena (thankfully no blown tire this time!) and bought fruits and veggies and meat in the market, several things at the pharmacy, and a few things at the supermarket, where I waited an hour in a line of people standing a meter apart and going in the store 30 at a time.

It is obligatory to where gloves and a face-mask, and I ran into several checkpoints while traveling. I noticed an overcharge in prices, especially meat, and several things out of stock, even in the big supermarket. You cant find any face-masks, hand gel or rubbing alcohol anywhere.

We have decided to butcher our ducks in the next day or so.

All in all, we are doing well, except for the 'stay at home antsies!'

Please keep us in your prayers!