Covid cases on the rise again in Cuenca; Campaign to vaccinate against hoof and mouth; Switched at birth, boys meet moms 21 years later; Road work begins

Miércoles, 23/6/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
Nada.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Aumentan contagios por COVID en Azuay (COVID infections increase in Azuay) – In the past week, MSP registered a 25% increase in Covid cases in Cuenca, leaving health authoritiies worried about a new outbreak. Bernardo Vega, a medical researcher, reported that between 14-20/6 there were a total of 401 cases in Azuay – 82 more than the previous week. The infection rate of 57 new cases a day has not been seen in the last 3 weeks when there was a tendency towards a gradual decrease in cases. In the last 7 days there have been 11 more deaths. Doctors at the two public hospitals report that ICU beds are over 90% full, with an increase in hospitalizations of non-critical patients in the last few days. Intensive care doctor Carlos Díaz said people have relaxed in their compliance with biosecurity measures with the vaccine plan giving them a false sense of security. Meetings and parties are the main causes of the increase. As of 21/6, only 13.37% of Azuayans have been fully vaccinated which is too low to generate an immunity de rebano (herd immunity – your words for the day).

CNE habilita puntos para información (CNE enables information sites) – In Azuay, citizens can get information about their vaccination center at two locations in Cuenca. The first is outside the offfices of the Delagación Provincial Electoral de Azuay, and the 2nd is in the patio de comidas (food court) at the Mall del Río. You can find out where your vaccination center will be and change it to somewhere more convenient if needed. <This might be useful to those of you who don’t know what parish you live in and got assigned to someplace nowhere near your house.> Changing your vaccination location will not change your polling place for the election in 2023.

Parents in Quingeo and Victoria del Portete say their children have difficulty learning remotely and are eager for them to return to school.

Mantenimiento y pavimento para varias calles (Maintenance and pavement for various streets) – The dirección de Obras Públicas is starting work on 3 new road projects. It finished the foundation for hard paving on calle sin nombre (street with no name) <Oh, is that why I can’t get mail?> between calle Juan Larrea and Manuel Alférez Cajias in Yanuncay Parish. Paving work started on calle Óscar Romero in the Monay Shopping sector, and there was maintenance work on av. Don Bosco y Carlos Quinto.

Hicieron cruzada solidaria (Solidarity crusade) – Members of the Policía Nacional in El Vecino y Bellavista, merchants in the mercado Miraflores, members of the Cooperativa de Vendedores Autónomos y Ferias Libres de Cuenca, the Asociación 20 de Agosto, and the Asociación de Productores Agroecológicos de Azuay organized a solidarity crusade to help people of limited means. Uniformed officers identified families to receive basic necessities including elderly people unable to work and not living with their families.

Repondrán puente peatonal en Nulti (Pedestrian bridge in Nulti to be replaced) – MTOP announced that it will replace the pedestrian bridge at km. 15 of the vía Cuenca-Azogues in Nulti, near the General Dávalos military base. The bridge was knocked down by a truck in enero, 2020. The pedestrian overpass is needed because people in the area, including children, need to cross the Autopista get to the bus stops without getting run over.

Fiebre aftosa (Hoof and mouth disease) – Agrocalidad, part of the Ministerio de Agricutura y Ganadería (MAG) is calling for ranchers to take part in the vaccine campaign against hoof and mouth disease. <Do anti-vaxxers believe that animals should also have the right to reject being vaccinated? Or is it OK to get your dog vaccinated against rabies even though he hates shots?>

Readaptándose a la presencialidad (Readapting to in person) – Mothers of school children in Quingeo and Victoria del Portete talked about the difficulty their children had in learning remotely even with good internet. One problem they faced was the lack of transportation in the rural areas for kids to get to school even though the Educative del Milenio schools in their areas had reopened 15 days ago. The Ministra de Educación, María Brown, said that there will be an assessment of the gradual reopening of schools done by the Ministerio de Educación and the COE. Brown said that so far the results have been extremely positive. As of last week, there were no reports of contagion hot spots nor of anomolies in the 1,102 schools that have reopened.

Dos niños fueron cambiados al nacer hace veintiún años (Two boys switched at birth twenty-one years ago) – When they were born in 1999 at a health facility in Cuenca, two boys were given to two different mothers. Years went by and in 2015, one of the mothers discovered what happened after a DNA test. She made a complaint and initiated an investigation after which the Policía Nacional located the two boys, both 21 year old adults. 12 babies were born on the same day when the infants were given to the wrong mothers. A 3-year investigation identified both mothers and their biological sons, and after 21 years, the mothers and sons met. <I can’t imagine how disruptive that would be to find out your Mom was really not your Mom.>

Gobierno asumirá USD 23 millones por cobro excesivo (Government will assume USD 23 million for excessive collection) – The government will compensate customers for excess collections on their electicity bills. The overpayments will be credited as a discount on your bill in julio.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
___________________

Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper (please don’t ask her for them). The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.