Coronavirus: bodies are being left on the streets in Ecuador
- ‘They fall in front of hospitals … no one wants to recover them,’ says mayor of Ecuador’s largest city
- Unclaimed bodies are being placed in refrigerated cargo containers while authorities pursue plans for a new cemetery
The corpses have been overwhelming Guayaquil, a port city of 2.8 million at the epicentre of the coronavirus crisis in Ecuador.
Over the last few days, several were wrapped in plastic and left on the streets. Others have lain unclaimed in hospitals and clinics that have been overwhelmed by infections. The city morgue is full.
The majority of the dead are believed to be victims of the virus, but nobody can say for sure how many. There has been little testing.
The country has confirmed 2,700 infections and 93 deaths - 60 of them in Guayaquil and its immediate surroundings. But municipal officials there said they have recovered at least 400 bodies in recent days.
Mayor Cynthia Viteri, who announced that she has tested positive for the virus, said the national government should be responsible for collecting the corpses.
“They’re leaving them in the villages, they fall in front of hospitals,” she said in a Twitter video message to residents last week. “No one wants to recover them.”