New data adds 8,000 to country’s Covid death count; Local teachers protest by hunger and blood-letting; Ex-Comptroller blames Correa for corruption

Jueves, 22/7/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

De la pagina cultural –

La Sinfónica interpretará la música de videojuegos (The Symphony will perform video game music) – The symphony will play music from video games such as Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, and Zelda. The show will be in the Teatro de la Casa de la Cultura with lights and visuals to accompany the music. The performance starts at 19:00. <It’s not clear is the show is mañana or today or both. The article implied that if people reacted well to the show scheduled for tomorrow, a show would be added today. You figure that one out – I can’t.> The reduced seating capacity will be 300 people.

Muestra recoge historias de niños (Show collects children’s stories) – Tania Luna toured various cantons and communities in the South to collect memories and testimonies of children through their favorite objects. Through these objects she learned about the realities of these rural kids’ lives. The show is in the Sala Proceso de la Casa de la Cultura until 6/8 with hours from 8-18:00. <How do you get little kids to give up one of their favorite objects? I’d hate to think by force.>

Titular –

The local vaccination plan includes children with serious diseases beginning next week.

Turbiedad en Contraloría (Turbidity in Comptroller’s Office) – <I’m going to do my best to untangle this article, but I might give up part way through.> In testimoney to the Audit Commision of the Asamblea Nacional, Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli, ex-minister of Hydrocarburos, said that an organized criminal structure was operating within the Contraloría General del Estado. The ex-surrogate comptroller, Valentina Zárate, agreed saying that a structural change is needed and not just a replacement of the Comptroller. She said you could apoint a priest, a rabbi or the Dalai Lama, but with the same organization, the office would not function. From the Ambato prison, Pareja Yannuzzelli said that for 10 years, the leader of the criminal structure was ex-Pres. Correa with smaller criminal structures led by others. In the Comptrollers office it was Carlos Pólit who is a fugitive from justice, and then Pablo Celi.

Cuenca –

MSP define enfermedades agravantes para vacunación (MSP defines aggravating diseases for vaccination) – Adolescents from 12-15 with aggravated illnesses will start getting their jabs from lunes, 26/7 in Zone 6, with the rest of the country starting ayer. People in this age group need to present a medical certificate from their specialist. Ximena Garzón, ministra de Salud, said that after the goal of vaccinating 9 million people in the first 100 days of Lasso’s administration, the 12-17 year old population without aggravated diseases will be vaccinated. Children suffering from obesity, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, type 1 or 2 diabetes, chronic liver disease, primary or secondary immunosuppresion including HIV, solid organ or blood stem cell transplants, chronic neurological or neuromuscular disease, active or with a medical history of oncological or oncohematological patients, active tuberculosis, 50% or more disabled, institutionalized or in long term care, rare or orphan diseases, or 12 or more weeks pregnant are eligible for vaccination. <I sure hope they don’t have any 12 year olds eligible by reason of pregnancy.>

Veeduría por la Vida preocupada por cifras de vacunados (Oversight for Life concerned about numbers of vaccinated) – Members of the Veeduría por la Vida, created to track the Plan de Vacunación, held a press conference in which they said that there is evidence of low applications of 2nd doses. In Azuay, 57.52% have gotten first doses and 20.34% 2nd doses as of 16/7. With the new administration into its first 50 days, they are concerned about the gap betwen 1st and 2nd doses.

Continental Tire Andina apoya el proceso (Continental Tire Andina supports the process) -The private sector is key to the Plan de Vacunación, and Continental Tire vaccinated 4,900 people with their first doses from el 13-17/7 with the 2nd doses to be administered starting el 10/8. Their medical dispensary was qualified as a vaccination center and the beneficiaries include their employees and families, providers of services, and other complementary services such as transport, catering, babysitting, cleaning, maintenance and the community. On el viernes, many people from the Quinta Chica barrio were innoculated.

Hambre y sangre en protesta docente (Hunger and blood in teacher protest) – 4 teachers in Azuay are in the 10th day of a hunger strike to support a national action by the union of educators. Teachers are urging the Corte Constitucional to ratify reforms to the Ley Orgánica de Educación Intercultural to improve education, equalize salaries, rehire laid off teachers and more. <I know, you want to hear about the blood – leeches, donations to the Red Cross, what?> Another group of teachers “desangraron” (bled) <Bleeding is much more dramatic if you’re taking anticoagulantes (blood thinners).> to symbolize the steams of money leaving the country through corruption and are therefore unavailable for education.

Más de 2,000 placas represadas en Azuay (More than 2,000 plates bottlenecked in Azuay) – La Agencia Nacional de Tránsito (ANT) is looking at ways to improve processes such as fabrication of license plates. Currently ther are more than 2,000 plates that have not been delivered in Azuay since 2018, mostly replacements and duplicates. The delay is because ANT is working with obsolete machinery and a lack of supplies. It is considering giving the fabrication over to the GADs (Gobiernos Autónomos Descentralizados) while keeping control of the numbering. This should get plates to car owners in 24 hours rather than the current 6 months.

Sucesos –

Buscan el retorno del Aeropolicial (They seek the return of the Aeropolicial) – Representatives of the Policía Nacional met with Governor Esteban Bernal to present the requirements for operating the Police Air Unit in Zone 6, and to return the helicopter to service in Cuenca.

Region –

En Oña urge tener un hospital (Urgent need for a hospital in Oña) – Authorities and residents of Oña formed a committee to get a hospital or at least a clinic in the canton which is located in Azuay on the border with Loja and has 6,000 inhabitants. Currently there is a type “A” health center with general and family medicine, dentistry, nursing, and blood testing once a week and hours limited to 8-17:00. For anything more, patients are taken to Saragura, 30 minutes south in Loja; to Nabón in Azuay, an hour north; or in the case of serious emergencies or sugery, to Cuenca which is 2 hours north. The fire department coordinates with ECU-911 and provides its ambulance.

Wifi gratis dan a 21 comunas (Free Wi-Fi given to 21 communities) – The municipalidad de Morona gave free wifi to 21 communities in the rural parishes of Sinaí, Proaño, and Sevilla Don Bosco to improve the quality of education for the children. The wifi points <Isn’t there a better, more technical term than points?> have a range of 200 m. with a capacity for 240 users connected 24 hours per day. They were installed in stadiums and casas comunales (community houses) <There’s probably one in your barrio, too. Are you immersed enough into your community to know where it is? Is Common Grounds the casa comunal in Gringolandia?>

Nacional –

Euador actualiza datos y número de fallecidos sube más de 8 mil (Ecuador updates data and number of deaths rises more than 8 thousand) – The MSP updated the way it counts Covid cases and for the first time it considered Covid related deaths outside of the health system. This raised the number from 21,958 on el lunes pasado to 30,744. Of these, 23,793 deaths occured in 2020 and the rest this year. The update included confirmed deaths from Covid which rose from 16,237 to 21,402 and the 9,342 deaths that were not confirmed by a test.

And that´s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne