Evaluation tent set up at Vicente Corral Moscoso Hospital, 200 Ecuadorians stranded in Mexico, Seven virus testing labs operate in Cuenca

Mar 17, 2020 | 3 comments

Martes, 17/3/2020

Hola, Todos –
Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Biblioteca Digital – UNESCO has opened up it’s digital library to the public. <You’re on your own as to how to get into it.>

CIDAP – CIDAP has suspended its activities temporarily. Their on-line service to consult the Centro de Documentación will remain active.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Estado de excepción y toque de queda decreta Presidente (President decrees a state of emergency and curfew) – See Tuesday’s article in CHL for details.

The Vicente Corral Moscoso Hospital is the designated public coronavirus treatment center in Cuenca.

Control of COVID-19 in Cuenca – When the paper went to press, there was 1 case in Azuay with the patient in isolation with family members in an epidemiological
containment (this afternoon there are 7). A patient isolated in the regional hospital over the weekend has tested negative. Regionally, there are two suspected cases being isolated in Morona Santiago. A patient in Cañar who is not showing symptoms, but recently arrived from Spain, is self isolating in a hotel. Similarly, 35 people are in isolation in Azuay pending test results. The health coordinator of Zone 6 is asking people who have arrived within the last 2 weeks from counties where the virus has broken out to communicate with the closest health center.

The Vicente Corral Moscoso regional hospital has a tent set up to evaluate people coming in with flu symptoms and put them in a specialized isolation section if needed. During these emergencies, hospital visits are restricted to only 1 person per patient, from 15-16:00, 7 days per week. <No more of the whole family including cousins, in-laws, etc. showing up.>

Testing – 7 labs in Azuay are preparing their locations to get Government accreditation to take patients who need tests. The labs at the Santa Inés hospital, Bioncogen, GM, Lebac, Cytolab, Citogenética y Biomolecular are being inspected. The manager of Santa Inés estimates that test will be ready this week. They will be free for patients coming from the public health network, and $90 for private patients. A medical evaluation will be needed before getting the test. These private labs will be able to give results in at most 4 hours. Currently, test samples are sent to Guayaquil with results in 3-4 days.

Transport – Buses are being fumigated and EMOV is checking that they have certificates showing this. The effect of the fumigation lasts about 40 days, but they will be fumigated every 20 and at most, 30 days. Taxis and mixtos are also required to be disinfected.

The Agencia Nacional de Tránsito (ANT) has suspended processing licenses and vehicle registrations until the end of the emergency. EMOV is postponing traffic fines for vehicle registrations in marzo y abril until 1/5. The National Police will intensify controls with respect to the Quedate en Casa (Stay at Home) campaign.

Schools – Classes will be suspended for 21 days with students in the Sierra and Amazonía returning to school el 6/4. A web site has been set up for kids to keep up with their studies on line. Go to https://recursos2.educacion.gob.ec. You don’t need to set up an account. Enter the sub-level and grade of the student to get the contingency plan and educational resources which will have weekly activities.

Stranded – More than 200 Ecuadorians were stranded in the Ciudad de México airport after the airline cancelled their flight citing the government deadline to enter Ecuador before midnight last night even though the flight was scheduled to arrive in Quito by 10:00. The same thing happened to a Cancún-Guayaquil flight.

Teletrabajo – 12,000 people have chosen to work from home. <Where every day is casual Friday, with a liberal interpretation of casual. Work in your pj’s? Or your underwear? Or only a towel under your butt to keep you from sticking to your chair?>

Galápagos – No visitors are being allowed into the Parque Nacional y la Reserva Marina de Galápagos. <That would also include those Chinese fishing boats.>

Shortage of beds – The country has 700 beds in intensive care units, both private and public, which will be inadequate if the number of coronavirus patients continues to increase. Also, there are only 3,000 tests.

“Canasta Agoecológica” – Agrokawsay, a public business of the Prefectura of Azuay will continue its project of connecting small agricultural producers with consumers. You can buy at www.agrodawsay.ec or the canasta popular application or use WhatsApp to call 099 281 4631 or 096 986 3647. <I’d recommend the website – you won’t have to speak Spanish over the phone, and there are pictures if you can’t read it either.> You can order every day and home deliveries are on miércoles, viernes y sábados.  The Canasta Popular contains 20 preselected products for $15 that includes beans, lentils, brocolli, red onion, spinach, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, avocado, potato, green plantain, arroz de cebada (barley in pieces), quinoa, tree tomato, limón, quesillo (cheese to make queso amasado), brown sugar and frescos (?). You can also make up your own customized basket from over 200 products.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne

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