Pharmacies resist plan to dispense gov’t meds, cite payment delays; Flooding destroys houses in Azogues, Biblián; Petroecuador proposes low-sulfur gasoline

Miércoles, 20/4/2022

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Nueva comedia trae la “Marujita” (“Marujita” brings a new comedy) – Juana Guarderas, better known as “Marujita,” will bring her new show, “Lecciones para rudos en tiempos pandemicos” (Lessons for rude guys in pandemic times) mañana y viernes. The show has teacher Carlota telling entertaining and absurd stories about her experience in education before, during and after the pandemic. The performance will be in the Sala “Alfonso Carrasco” in the Casa de la Cultura. The shows will be a las 20:00. Tickets are on sale at Librimundi and cost $12.

Titular –

On Wednesday night, a railroad bridge over the Rio Burgay collapsed in Azogues.

La furia del Burgay (The fury of the Burgay) – The Río Burgay and its tributaries rose again and damaged roads and houses in Azogues and Biblián. In Azogues, it destroyed the second platform at the old Sucre mercado and a building containing the bathrooms. In Biblián part of a road was undermined near the Dávila bridge that serves the Nazón and Jerusalén parish. On Wednesday night, a railroad bridge over the Rio Burgay collapsed in Azogues.

Cuenca –

Se prolonga externalización de las farmacias en el país (Outsourcing of pharmacies in the country is extended) – Outsourcing pharmacies was to have started el 31/23, but the process still has not begun, and there is no date set. Testing the program was done at the “Vicente Corral Moscoso” hospital in Cuenca along with 5 others in 3 other cities, and the mechanism was validated and working correctly. The schedule would have progressively added specialized, general, and basic hospitals and type C health centers, but it is unconfirmed if the schedule will be met. Also, the participating pharmacies have not been detailed. Jorge Saquicela, the attorney for the Unión Nacional de Propietarios de Farmacias del Ecuador (Unprofe) anticipated that they will not be part of this program since the Government has a history of being a “mal pagador” (bad payer). <How did Pres. Bush put it? Fool me once, shame on – shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again.” We all knew what he meant and it applies to Unprofe.>

The outsourcing <assuming it gets off the ground this time> would work so that patients treated at public hospitals could go to authorized pharmacies with an electronic prescription and receive their medications for free. Once they get their meds, the system would block the prescription and send a notice to the hospital that treated the patient. There would be list of medications with prices standardized nationally. The Government has said it would guarantee the budget needed to execute this program.

Andrea Bersosa, Zone coordinator of Health, said that Covid-19 vaccinations are advancing normally and called for citizens to continue with their immunizations. In Azuay, 88% have gotten their 1st dose, 86% their 2nd, and 40% their 3d, but only .21% have received a 4th dose. There were 22 Covid cases reported this week in Zone 6 with less than 10% of hospital beds occupied.

Enfermeras del HJCA cumplen sueño de paciente pediátrico (HJCA nurses fulfill pediatric patient’s dream) – Nurses at the Hospital de Especialidades José Carrasco Arteaga (HJCA) fulfilled a dream of Luis M., a 14 year old patient who entered the hospital in 12/21 in grave condition from a complication in his health due to an aneurysm. He was in the Pediatric ICU unit during Christmas. The social workers asked the kids to write a letter to Papá Noel telling him what they wanted for Christmas, and Luis asked for a perrito “lobo” blanco (little white wolf dog). He had to wait for some months until his condition improved, but he received his new pet today. <It looks like a Samoyed puppy. And this is your feel good story for the week? month? year?>

Cuenca celebrará el Día del Yoga (Cuenca will celebrate Yoga Day) – As a prelude to the Día Internacional del Yoga on el 21/6, there was an event in Cuenca on el 16/4. 3 institutions participated in the talk on the Philosophy of Yoga. You can watch the program on https://www.youtube.com/watch?-v=APz0Obuu7-o. <If it doesn’t work, try it without the dash after the ? since the dash may have been there for a line break.>

Buenas sensaciones deja el Feriado (Good feelings about the holiday) – The 3 day Semana Santa holiday gave good results to the tourist industry. Hotel occupancy recuperated to 93% relative to 2019. ECU statistics showed a million and half people traveled in the country which was 73% of the number who traveled before the pandemic. Spending rose to 72% of the levels in 2019 <before we knew what was going to hit us. If we’d known, more of us would probably have traveled.>

Útiles inventos de universitarios (Useful university inventions) – At a meeting with the productive sector yesterday, professors and students from the U. Católica presented inventions that could be put into production by the private sector. One was the “DROPI,” a drone which can detect vital signs vía a camera, and could be used for rapid triage to manage the rescue of people who, for example, are trapped somewhere. Another idea was “CeCI,” a robot which could be used as a delivery service or telematic equipment.

Empresarial –

Nuevos combustibles con use de etanol (New fuels using ethanol) – Italo Cedeño, manager of Petroecuador, is proposing to sell 89 & 95 octane fuel starting in julio, 2022. The intention is to have an option to buy an intermediate gas between super and extra or ecopaís. The 95 octane gas which would use ethanol would be similar in price to super with better quality. Genaro Baldeón, president of the Asociación de Empresas Automotrices del Ecuador (AEADE), said that gas sold in the country is among the worst in Latin America. He said the sulfur is the primary cause of air pollution. What’s available here has been prohibited in Europe for more than 20 years.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
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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.