Rosa does not know where the body of her husband was taken. Other bodies are waiting on the streets. The coronavirus pandemic is disrupting mortuary customs in Guayaquil, generating horror in the most populous city of Ecuador.
This port on the Pacific coast has the highest covid-19 mortality rate in Latin America: 1.35 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, more than the gigantic Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo (0.92), according to doctor Esteban. Ortiz, researcher from the University of the Americas.
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As the pandemic progresses in this small country, with nearly 2,800 cases confirmed Wednesday, including at least 98 dead – the highest figures in the region after Brazil – Rosa Romero has lost her husband, Bolivar Reyes, from a heart attack , apparently unrelated to the new coronavirus.
The 51-year-old housewife had to wait until the next day before the forensic department came to remove the body. A week later, she does not know where he is.
“We were told that he had been taken to Guasmo hospital. We went to see, but it was not recorded anywhere“Romero told AFP.
The 15 hour curfew imposed in this city of 2.7 million inhabitants complicates his quest.
Reluctant undertakers
Confinement slows burials in cemeteries and the task of funeral services. They are also reluctant to take care of bodies at home, for fear that covid-19 is the cause of death, and therefore of contagion, while autopsies are limited.
The government, which has banned evenings in funeral homes where the family and acquaintances of the deceased crowd in a hurry, has attempted to impose cremation. But he had to give up under the fire of critics.
The pandemic “complicated the functioning of the city’s mortuary system. This is understandable when there is an increase in deaths and a limitation of people authorized to work in all sectors“admits spokesperson Jorge Wated.
The virus severely strikes the province of Guayas and its capital, Guayaquil, which accounts for 70% of the cases and more than half of the deaths in this country of some 17 million inhabitants.
The city’s health system is under pressure while its mayor, Cynthia Viteri, is in quarantine after being infected.
From panic to horror
At the same time, videos showing masked people collapsing or bodies abandoned on the streets are spreading on social media faster than the disease.
Panic has given way to horror at the way in which corpses are now treated, in a hot and humid tropical climate.
Blanca Moncada, 31, a journalist for the daily newspaper Expreso de Guayaquil, echoed the drama of the dead left behind in their homes. She launched a Twitter campaign and in two days reported 50 cases, of which no one knows how many died from the coronavirus.
“We received videos, photos (…) of desperate audios, calls from people in despair, from Guayaquil residents who wanted their dead to be removed“, she explained to AFP.
The government of President Lenin Moreno has deployed a joint force of military and police to manage the removal of corpses from the city. Between Monday and Wednesday, she recovered 150 from houses and apartments.
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The worse is yet to come
The Guayaquilans are in a state of “shock“Pablo Andrade, an expert in public policy at the Andean University Simon Bolivar, told AFP. This is because of”the contemptuous, humiliating way in which the central government has dealt with the problem“.
Until March, Guayaquil counted around 35 deaths per day from various causes. But because of the pandemic, “there was a delay in the removal of the bodies“admitted the Minister of Health, Juan Carlos Zeballos.
According to him, this is what generated the impression that the number of deaths was increasing exponentially.
It is in any case the first time that dozens of bodies are only removed after several days.
In a public message, the Minister presented “apologies“to families, warning that the worst is yet to come:”Medical experts have unfortunately told us and estimate that there will be 2,500 to 3,500 deaths from covid in the coming months, in the province of Guayas alone. We are preparing for it“.
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