Ecuador’s death toll from COVID-19 has climbed to 3,768 as a total of 45,082 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Public Health Ministry said on Thursday.
In the past 24 hours, 642 new cases of infection were detected and 48 more patients died, according to the ministry’s daily update. Cases are still on the rise in the province of Guayas, the country’s epicenter, where 14,559 people have tested positive and 1,478 have died from the disease.
Pichincha is the second worst-hit province, where 4,946 people have tested positive and 358 have died.
The nation’s capital Quito has also been hit hard, though the lockdown there has been relaxed to allow some economic activities to resume. In the past 24 hours, Quito saw 48 new cases of infection and 10 deaths. Ecuador’s actual death toll could be higher, with the authorities reporting another 2,516 deaths as likely to have been caused by COVID-19.
More than half of the country’s cities are now in a post-pandemic period of resuming economic activities under the new normal of maintaining social distancing and wearing face masks.
