Ecuador adds 353 new Covid cases and totals 492,184 in pandemic (August 8)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ecuador added this Sunday 353 new cases of covid-19 to total an accumulated 492,184 positives during the pandemic, whose first record dates from February 29 last year, informed the Ministry of Health.

The report details that the number of confirmed deaths due to covid-19 reached 22,365, only three more than the previous day, which must be added 9,430 “probable deaths” with the disease, for a total of 31,795 deaths.

Regarding the situation in the provinces, the official report specified that Pichincha, whose capital is Quito, accumulates the highest number of infections with 180,093 cases (353 more than on Saturday), followed by Guayas, whose capital is Guayaquil, with 68,314 infections (52 more).

Then come provinces such as Manabí (32,959), Azuay (27,216), El Oro (23,086), Loja (17,876), Imbabura (16,584), Tungurahua (15,324), Los Ríos (12,965), Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas (12,015), Cotopaxi (11,935) and Esmeraldas (9,534), among the most affected.

The Government of Ecuador launched on January 21 a vaccination plan against covid-19 and is expected to immunize nine million people, 60 percent of the population, by the end of August.

According to this plan and up to August 6, a total of 12,649,538 vaccines have been applied in Ecuador, of which 9,585,665 correspond to first doses and 3,063,873 to second applications.

In Ecuador, vaccines from the U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer, the Chinese company Sinovac and the British company AstraZéneca are applied.

Ecuador also recently received 200,000 doses of the Chinese Cansino vaccine, a single application, which will be destined for human groups in remote areas with difficult access and prison inmates.