Virus Still Rages Unchecked in Ecuador After Port City Disaster
- Cases are likely close to 2 million, researcher says
- Testing remains well below what’s needs to slow the spread
An Ecuadorean soldier patrols a market in southern Quito, on July 17, 2020.
Photographer: CRISTINA VEGA RHOR/AFPFour months after Ecuador’s port city of Guayaquil was ravaged by the coronavirus, the rest of the nation is faring nearly as poorly. Although you wouldn’t know it from the official figures.
The cash-strapped country -- which is trying to claw its way back from a default -- has been unable to boost testing fast enough, pay medical staff on time or install enough hospital beds to deal with the fallout. Ecuador has managed just 15,200 tests per million residents, less than a fifth of the per-capita tests being carried out in Chile, a nation with a slightly larger population, according to a paper published by Ecuadorian epidemiologist Andrea Gomez at the Universidad de Chile.