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News > Ecuador

Ecuador: Health Minister Says Quito’s Hospitals Are at Full Capacity

  • Juan Carlos Zevallos (center) offers a conference in the National Public health Investigation Institute, Quito, Ecuador. June 2, 2020.

    Juan Carlos Zevallos (center) offers a conference in the National Public health Investigation Institute, Quito, Ecuador. June 2, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/@Salud_Ec

Published 3 June 2020
Opinion

Ecuador's Health Ministry would sum up 27 beds for Covid-19 patients in the intensive care unit

Ecuador Health Minister Juan Carlos Zevallos Tuesday warned that Quito’s hospitals are at full capacity due to Covid-19 sanitary emergency.

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

"In the case of Quito, what we are experiencing is not the peak of contagion. This was in the last week of April. What we are experiencing is the peak of demand for beds,” Zevallos stated in a virtual press brief.

According to the health authority, his office would sum up 27 beds for Covid-19 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), alongside other 37 capacities in two other hospitals.

"Although hospital occupancy is at its limit, especially in the Critical Care Units, we are responding to expand hospital capacity to avoid saturation," said the Health Minister.

As Zevallos said, hospital demand in Guayaquil decreased dramatically, due to an occupancy rate of 23% in hospitalization and 45% in ICU. 

"Ecuador is the first country in South America to reopen domestic and international flights, under strict health care. At the same time, we are promoting tourism with the campaign Te Prometo Ecuador. We need to revive our economy! "


He also reported that San Cristobal and Santa Cruz’s islands in Galapagos were declared "Covid-19 free zones " and Daule and Babahoyo’s contagious rate decreased.

The Minister also briefed about Germany’s medical aid to Ecuador health institutions, made up of 100, 000 testing kits.

"Today, we begin a new stage in the process of social distancing. The worst is behind. We cannot turn back," he affirmed.

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