A woman wearing a mask walks near a hospital in Quito, Ecuador, March 5, 2020. (Photo by Santiago Armas/Xinhua)
The director of Risk Management for the MSP, Santiago Taratras, said that the figures showed the progressive escalation of the virus between Friday and Saturday, and that all suspicious deaths are going through a verification process to confirm the presence of the novel coronavirus.
QUITO, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's Ministry of Public Health (MSP) announced on Saturday that there are 1,823 cases of COVID-19 in the country, with 48 total fatalities.
The director of Risk Management for the MSP, Santiago Taratras, said that the figures showed the progressive escalation of the virus between Friday and Saturday, and that all suspicious deaths are going through a verification process to confirm the presence of the novel coronavirus.
The official confirmed that 30 of the coronavirus deaths have been reported in the southwestern province of Guayas, the area most affected by the pandemic, with 73.8 percent of the total cases in the country.
As of 10:00 local time (1500 GMT), the MSP reported 2,503 suspicious cases.
Taratras said that 54 percent of cases have appeared in men and 46 percent in women, while the most affected people are those between 20 and 49 years of age. He added that 94 patients confirmed to have the virus have been hospitalized and 1,565 are stable in home isolation.
Ecuador, a country of more than 17 million inhabitants, is currently in a state of emergency and has enacted a series of measures to combat the virus, including restricting mobility and the imposition of a curfew. ■