Ecuador is a part of western South America (Figure1). The country bordered by the Pacific Ocean in West, by Colombia in north and by Peru in south. [1] The population of Ecuador is 1374000 until 2019. The male female ratio is 100.1 male per 100 female. The Health expenditure of Ecuador is 8.4% of GDP. [2]
Trend of Covid-19 in Ecuador
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Ecuador was on 1 March 2020. [3, 4] The Ecuadorian Ministry declared a national health emergency on 11 March 2020. [5] The first COVID-19 related death reported on 16 March 2020. [3, 4] As of 11 July 2020, 65801 total COVID-19 cases reported (1.2% increase) with 783 new cases (55.84% decrease) and 4,983 total fatalities (0.89% increase) with 44 new fatalities reported (33.33% decrease) (Source: smaartrapidtracker.org Last accessed July 12 2020).
Total COVID-19 cases per million
There has been an increased trend in the total number of COVID-19 cases since June1 2020 (Figure2). Total cases of COVID-19 per million were 111 on March 31 and has shown significant rise and were reported 1399 (April 30), 2186 (May 31), 3155 (June 30) and at present is 3730 (as of July 12 2020)
New COVID-19 cases per million
As of July 10 2020, Ecuador has reported 100 new COVID-19 cases per million. April 25 2020 reported the highest number of ne COVID-19 cases per million (n=654). It was around April 25 that highest spike in the new cases was seen
Daily rate of change of new fatality
As of July 8 2020, Ecuador has reported 30% daily rate of change of new fatality related to COVID-19. Highest spikes in the rate of change of new fatality were seen on April 2 (374%), May 2 (858%); May 13 (911%) and June 30 (1360%) (Figure 4)
Comparing COVID-19 trends between Ecuador, Colombia and Peru
As of July 11 2020, Peru (n=316448) had the highest number of total COVID-19 cases, while Colombia had the highest increase in new cases of COVID-19 (n=5335) (Figure 5) Ecuador reported.
However, Ecuador seems to show decrease in both the new cases (55.84 decrease) of COVID-19 as well as decrease in new fatality (33.33% decrease).
Ecuadorian government Initiative during COVID-19
Ecuador, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus. The government of Ecuador declared a national health emergency on 11 March 2020. [5] The Ecuador government closed the borders, suspended all non-essential services, announced a national curfew from 7:00pm to 5:00am from 17 March 2020 and enhanced screening to reduce the spread of COVID-19. [6, 7] The country began to loosen some restrictions and shift from social isolation to social distancing on May 4. Ecuador’s airports reopened to both domestic and international flights on June 1 at 30 percent of their usual capacity.
Additional key measure taken by the government include
- March 17: Postponing social security payments for 90 days and deferring taxes for the tourism and export sectors as well as for small businesses, for the months of April, May, and June.
- April 10: New taxes on higher earners
- April 12: Halve the salaries of government officials
- May 11: Treasury asked all government agencies on May 5 to submit plans to reduce their budgets by 10 to 15 percent.
- June 22: A new Humanitarian Support Law: allow for work hours and salaries reduced by up to 50 and 45 percent, respectively, for two years at a time.
Conclusion
Ecuador has been one of the countries worst affected by coronavirus in Latin America and the health system is under enormous strain. There could be significant mental health impacts due to the COVID-19 outbreak and will require rigorous governmental response to address this pandemic.
References
- Central Intelligence Agency World Fact Book (CIA). Ecuador at a Glance World Bank (WB) at Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) [Internet]. [cited 2020, June 11]. Available from: http://data.worldbank.org/country/ecuador
- United Nation data. A world of information [Internet]. [cited 2020, June 12]. Available from: http://data.un.org/en/iso/ec.html
- World Health Organization (WHO) [Internet]. [cited 2020, June 11]. Available from:https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/27-04-2020-who-timeline—covid-19
- SMAART RapidTracker: A Global Policy Informatics Tool to Track COVID-19 Outbreak (Corona Virus Disease Outbreak) – SMAART RapidTracker – using SMAART Informatics Framework at Covid-19 Dashboard [Internet]. [cited 2020, June 11]. Available from: //www.smaartrapidtracker.org
- Presidente declara emergencia sanitaria en el Ecuador por el coronavirus covid-19 [Internet]. [cited 2020, June 13]. Available from: https://www.elcomercio.com/video/ecuador-medidas-emergencia-coronavirus-covid.html 2020
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