Protect yourself from flu and Covid; Despite drought, city doesn’t expect water rationing; Cajas highway closed in two places; Suspected thief is shot

Miércoles, 7/12/2022
 
Hola, Todos 

Titular –

Subir defensas es fácil y tiene receta sencilla (Boosting defenses is easy and has a simple recipe) – In the more than 2 years of the pandemic, peoples’ immune systems have been affected by a sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, and the after-effects of having been infected with Covid-19. Because of this, infections are more frequent and there is an increase in cases of Covid, flu, and other illnesses which mainly affect children and teens. <That’s because they go to school which are where viruses also go. I think all parents know this.> Doctor Sandra Patiño recommends fortifying your immune system. She also said that the most serious health problem in children has gone from malnutrition to overweight and obesity which have started to present metabolic health problems at earlier ages.

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is one way to fortify your immune system against respiratory illnesses, including flu and Covid-19. (El Mercurio)

Cuatro pasos para una buena inmunología (Four steps for good immunology) –
1. Daily physical activity. Walk more and use the car less. <Or get a high energy dog. It will insist on being taken for walks and play times.> For children — fewer screens — TV, cellphones, tablets, etc., and more time outside. Start playing a sport <Even though chess seems to be considered a sport here, I think that wouldn’t qualify as physical activity.>
2. Eat healthily. More fruits and vegetables, at least 3 portions a day. <Geeze, if I only ate 3 portions of produce, the rest of my diet would have to be Ex-lax.>
3.  Restorative sleep. What is recommended is that by 22:00, everyone in the house is in bed with all screens and lights turned off.
4. Get sunshine. You should get sun from 6:00-10:00 for at least 30 min. each day. <Fine for those of you who can get out of bed before 10 am.>

Cuenca – 

Vacunas disponibles en centros de salud para la influenza (Influenza vaccines available at health care facilities) – From 14/11/2022 to 3/2023, free flu shots will be available at all health centers of the Ministerio de Salud Pública from 8:30 – 16:30. Noviembre to marzo is flu season in Ecuador. The shots are focused on priority groups: children from 6 months to 3 years, people older than 65, pregnant women, people with chronic illnesses, and health personnel.

La basura contamina el Cajas (Garbage pollutes the Cajas) – Beer bottles and cans, plastics from various products, and old clothes are some of the trash that disfigure the Parque Nacional Cajas. This is a problem since the Cajas are the source of water for thousands of people in Cuenca. ETAPA, which administers the park is aware of the situation, but with only 22 park rangers patrolling the 28,400 hectares, it can’t pick up all the garbage. The Cajas is different from other protected areas since it is the only one which is crossed by an interprovincial road which is a commercial thoroughfare. Much of the problem is cultural with people throwing trash out of the windows of the thousands of vehicles that drive through the park. ETAPA signed an agreement with EMAC so that municipal garbage collectors travel the vía Cuenca-Molleturo-Naranjal between the Quinuas and Huagrahuma control stations once a week, and pick up the garbage within 2 meters of the roadway.

For biologist Gustavo Morejón, it’s necessary and urgent that the population reconsider what it’s provoking in the Cajas. He has found plastics in nests of birds that live in the Cajas, and said that much of the discarded plastic takes 100 to 1,000 years to decompose. He said a possible solution is environmental education and knowing which businesses are behind the plastic items being thrown out in the park. The businesses do not pay attention to the impact their discarded packaging has on the park, preferring to blame the problem on the cities for not knowing how to manage the waste. Once businesses respond to the packaging problem, things could change.

Etapa no prevé racionar agua en esta época seca (Etapa does not foresee water rationing in this dry season) – While Etapa is not considering water rationing, it is calling on citizens to conserve water. It is forecasting that it will probably not rain until at least next week. Regarding the dry days in Cuenca, Lenín Álvarez from Etapa, said this season is repeating the last 3 years of La Niña. He expects the weather to change in diciembre with some rain. Until then, he recommended being careful with water, and protecting yourself from the high levels of solar radiation by using hats or caps and sunscreen.01

De El Mercurio del martes, 6/12 (2 articles):
Gripe estacional afecta a niños y adultos mayores (Seasonal flu affects children and older adults) – In the last 4 weeks, public hospitals and private consulting rooms in Cuenca and the country have treated larger numbers of patients with flu and Covid-19 symptoms. There has been an increase in respiratory infections in general and especially in children from 2-5 and seniors. In week 48 there were 3,549 confirmed cases of Covid while in week 40 there were 1,993. The type of flu currently circulating is A/H3-N2 which generally peaks in diciembre y febrero. Schools are taking measures such as asking families to not send their kids with flu symptoms to school, to suspending in-person classes.

La Salle suspended classes ayer y hoy to disinfect the classrooms. The Ministerio de Educación is recommending that parents isolate symptomatic kids at home for 2 or 3 days. A pediatrician advised using masks in closed areas with poor ventilation, washing hands frequently, getting completely vaccinated against flu and Covid, going to a health center if you have serious symptoms, and not self medicating.

Indagan asesinato en las afueras de un domicilio (Murder outside a house investigated) – Police are investigating the circumstances of the death of 26 year old Andrés Paúl Déleg Tacuri who was found on the sidewalk on Isabel La Católica y Fray Gaspar de Carvajal on la noche de domingo, 4/12. He had a screwdriver in his hand and a bullet hole in his head. There were also 2 bullet holes in the door of the house with the shots originating from inside. The woman who owned the house said at 12:13 on domingo, unknown people dressed in black with pasamontañas (balaclavas/ski masks – your word for the day) entered the house and stole about $5,000. She passed out and when she came to, her husband was not there. Investigators are also looking for the husband who is considered missing. So far in 2022, there have been 32 violent deaths in Cuenca as opposed to 24 in 2021.

Region – 

De El Mercurio del martes, 6/12 (2 articles):
Cierre en Sayausí es para reparar alcantarillado y vía (Closure in Sayausí is to repair sewer and road ) – The vía Cuenca-Molleturo-El Empalme is closed at km. 7 in the Los Ramales sector until el viernes to make repairs to damage from the last rainy season. There was a landslide at km. 10 in the Marianza sector that closed the road. One lane was reopened and work began on retaining walls. The general work is 75% complete and should be finished by the end of the month. The current road closure is to replace a community sewer system in order to protect the one lane that is functioning.

This work is palliative to guarantee the circulation of traffic through the sector. MTOP is planning to contract for a study next year for the comprehensive rehabilitation of the vía Cuenca-Molleturo-El Empalme with definite solutions. <Until Mother Nature surprises all the engineers, builders, government officials and users of the highway with some other way to close the road. How does a geyser sound? Or a rain of toads even though there are probably already enough sapos on the road. Ask an Ecuadorian friend what “sapo” means and how it´s used.>

Variante en Molleturo se abrirá partir del viernes (Bypass in Molleturu to open Friday) – The Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas (MTOP) will open the bypass below the vía Cuenca-Molleturo-El Empalme at km 49 el próximo viernes a las 00:00. This will allow the work to stabilize the slope above the vía to resume. The bypass has been ready and used by some people, but it couldn’t be opened to the public until signage improvements required by the Comisión de Tránsito del Ecuador (CTE) were made. The bypass will be the alternate route for the 5 months it will take to stabilize the slope.

The work at km. 10 in the Marianza sector is at 90% after channelizing the creek, stabilizing the slope, and rebuilding the roadway platform. Replacing the curbs and laying asphalt to finish the work should be done before the Christmas and New Year holidays. <Are you ready for a week at the beach after New 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.