Ecuador's COVID-19 Cases Pass 40,000 as Gov't Eases Measures

Ecuador’s Ministry of Health announced Tuesday that 420 new positive cases of Covid-19 have been registered within the last 24 hours in the country, which reached a total of 40,414 infections.

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The ministry also confirmed 3,438 new coronavirus related-deaths with another 2,201 that are probably due to the virus, for a total of 5,639 fatalities. This latest figure represents an increase of 110 deaths compared to Monday when 5,529 deaths were registered.

Yet the country has decided to ease the coronavirus restrictions Monday and to resume domestic and international flights while reducing the curfew from 15 to 11 hours.

However, Ecuador will maintain for two weeks the prohibition for flights from countries with a high number of contagions such as Brazil, while demanding test results of COVID-19 and imposing a quarantine for travelers from abroad.

The country of 17.5 million people has been one of the worst-affected in South America.

It is the fourth nation with the most important number of deaths due to coronavirus in the region, behind Brazil, Mexico, and Peru according to Johns Hopkins University.

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) described South America as a "new epicenter of the disease."

Brazil, which has recorded more than 23,000 deaths, has the second-highest number of confirmed infections in the world. Ecuador's neighbor Peru, has more than 120,000 cases.