Police in Ecuador collect 150 bodies from city streets and homes as government warns that as many as 3,500 people could die of coronavirus
- Police removed corpses from streets and homes in town Guayaquil, Ecuador
- Government has warned 3,500 people could die of the coronavirus in port city
- Ecuador is the Latin American country worst hit by the virus after Brazil
- Guayas province has 70 percent of the country’s Covid-19 infections
Troops and police in Ecuador have collected at least 150 bodies from streets and homes in the port city of Guayaquil, the Government has said.
Shocking images of a joint military and police task force gathering corpses the past three days comes amid warnings 3,500 people could die of the coronavirus in the city and surrounding provinces in the coming months.
Residents in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second city, had earlier published videos on social media of abandoned bodies in the streets.
Some left desperate messages for authorities to take away the corpses of people who had died in their homes as mortuary workers in masks and protective clothing carried plastic-wrapped coffins in the city this week.
Government spokesman Jorge Wated said mortuary workers had been unable to keep up with the removal of corpses.
People wait next to coffins outside Guasmo Sur General Hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador
People protest the difficulty of recovering bodies of relatives at Guasmo Sur General Hospital
A hospital worker is sprayed with disinfectant at Guasmo Sur General Hospital in Guayaquil
Relatives and the staff of Jardines de la Esperanza cemetery bury suspected Covid-19 victims
He blamed a curfew imposed under the pandemic.
‘We acknowledge any errors and apologize to those who had to wait days for their loved ones to be taken away,’ Mr Wated said.
He warned of difficult days ahead, claiming: ‘The medical experts unfortunately estimate that deaths from Covid in these months will reach between 2,500 and 3,500 – in the province of Guayas alone, and we are preparing for that.’
‘We are working so that each person can be buried with dignity in one-person spaces,’ Mr Wated said, referring to a Government-run cemetery being made available with capacity for around 2,000 bodies.
It is not known how many of the dead were victims of the coronavirus.
Ecuador is the Latin American country worst hit by the virus after Brazil, with more than 3,160 infections and 120 deaths as of this morning.
Guayaquil’s Guayas province has 70 percent of the country’s Covid-19 infections.
A funeral home worker in a protective suit waits with a coffin on a pick-up truck outside Los Ceibos Hospital in Guayaquil after Ecuador reported new Covid-19 cases
Coffins are transported into a cemetery on trucks, in Guayaquil, Ecuador during curfew
A man helps a sick woman enter a hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador amid the pandemic
Funeral home employees wait with coffins on a pick-up truck outside Los Ceibos hospital
Men carry a sick man into a hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador during the coronavirus pandemic
People wait next to coffins outside of Guasmo Sur General Hospital during pandemic