‡Suspected cases have not been confirmed by laboratory tests as being due to this strain, although some other strains may have been ruled out.
The COVID-19 pandemic was reported to have spread to Ecuador on 29 February 2020. That was when a woman in her 70s tested positive for the virus. Ecuador was described in April as the growing "epicentre" of the pandemic in Latin America.[3]
Deaths
The city of Guayaquil had so many deaths that bodies were left in the street.[4] Ecuador gave out cardboard coffins because the country had difficulty removing all the dead bodies.[5][6] The government was planning to build emergency cemeteries to dispose of the bodies which are left in the streets.[7]
The number of deaths was believed to be higher than the official figure because not enough testing was being done.[9] A New York Times analysis found 7,600 more deaths had happened from 1 March to 15 April as the mortality rate spiked to three times as much as usual. That showed that the official death toll was lower than the actual death toll.[10]
↑In total 826 bodies were recovered by authorities from homes with knowledge of presenting the same symptoms of Covid-19, amid a reported breaking point in Hospitals and Morgues [1][2]
