City council, businesses push to reopen Cuenca, Hospitals investigated for corruption, Mother’s Day serenades allowed, New rules at Feria Libre

Miércoles, 6/5/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

De la pagina cultural –

Serenades – El Comité de Operaciones de Emergencia (COE) Nacional has approved a protocol to allow artists to work for Mothers Day. Serenades will be allowed on el 9 & 10/5 from 9-20:00 with the following requirements. The artist must be part of the Registro Unico de Artistas y Gestores Culturales (RUAC) and have a salvoconducto. The information needed to get a salvoconducto is the route, and number of and locations of the stops plus the contact information for the destinations (name,cedula, and phone #). A maximum of 8 musicians is allowed and the shows can’t be over 40 min. No crowds are allowed. <How about some of you bands going out and serenading your friends? Especially if they live in edificios where their neighbors can enjoy the show, too.>

Otras cosas –

Titular – Sugieren retomar actividades (Resuming activities suggested) – The Consejo Cantonal sent Mayor Pedro Palacios a proposal to change the restrictions from red to yellow, as quickly as possible, before the paralyzation of the productive sector affects all segments of the population. <How come the spell check built into gmail says I spelled paralyzation wrong when that’s the spelling Google translate gave me? I really rely on Google translate to spell English words for me.> Merchants and craftsmen have taken their own measures and are using them to reopen. In spite of all the municipalities in the country electing to stay at red, people have gradually been relaxing and showing higher levels of non-compliance with the regulations. From 14/3 to ayer, 911 registered 26,277 reports of crowds with 18.1% in Quito, 13.5% in Guayaquil, 5.8% in Ambato, and 5.1% in Cuenca.

Purchases at public hospital are being audited for fraud.

Leaders of the Cámara de Comercio, the trades groups, hotel sector, and construction say their members will take the necessary protective measures to return to their activities. Business people who have taken their own measures and reopened include a peluquería (hairdresser) whose owner has trained his employees to always use masks and gloves. He’s enlarged the distances between stations, and has a protocol for constant disinfecting. An owner of a clothing store installed a disinfecting arch and bought an infrared thermometer. When customers try on clothing and don’t buy the items, the clothing is disinfected. <I hope no one was clueless enough to try disinfect the garments with bleach.> Hornado and fritada vendors on Don Bosco have reopened for either delivery or take out. <If you’re craving a plate of cerdo with llapingachos.> But there was an operation yesterday by the province to close locations that were open without authorization. <So maybe roast pig will not be in your immediate future.>

Corruption in hospitals – All the hospitals in Quito and at least 5 more in the rest of the country are being investigated for corruption in purchasing of unnecessary medical supplies or at inflated prices, and selling articles bought by the Government to give to its citizens for free. To combat these acts, the Government has created the Sistema Unificado de Compra de Medicamentos y Bienes Estratégicos para el Sector Salud (Unified System for the Purchase of Medicines and Strategic Goods for the Health Sector). The Secretaria Anticorruption will place teams from the Unidad Anticorrupción Emergente in all the affected hospitals.

The director of the José Carasco Arteaga IESS hospital in Cuenca has asked for a report to audit the purchasing process to make sure no one is speculating on prices for medical necessities.

El Arenal – Few locations are open en El Arenal. Before it was closed on 6/4, there were 5,000 merchants in the market. <I bet a lot of you came from towns with populations smaller than that.> The new capacity will be 2,000. Wholesalers will be able to enter the market between 16:00 and 23:00 and again between 3-7:30. The municipality has an app that can count the number of people entering El Arenal.

Registro Civil – The Registo Civil for Azuay has restarted its service for registering births. Go to registrocivil.gob.ec for an appointment which will be at the El Batán office in the ExCREA. Once you have an appointment, bring the papers for a live birth, and the parents’ cedulas. The service is free and the presence of the newborn is not needed. <I would certainly hope not – even a bureaucracy isn’t dumb or heartless enough to require that the baby be present.> Expiration dates for cedulas have been postponed and your cedula will now be valid to 90 days from the 16/3.

Jeanne