Ecuador could do away with face masks, but it’s still a moot point

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The positive data are leading many sectors to believe that the government of Guillermo Lasso will release the use of masks, as other countries in the region and in the world have already done.

According to the latest official data, bed occupancy in hospitals is currently 5% and in intensive care units 13% for covid patients, and the trend is downward.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Ecuador

In addition, out of 100 tests performed in public and private laboratories, only five are positive, which health officials believe could be a sign that Covid-19 is on its way to becoming endemic.

Ecuador has shown from the very beginning that it cannot cope with the pandemic, and the local “experts” have been characterized mainly by helplessness and ignorance.

In April 2020, the country experienced the worst of the pandemic, and dozens of dead people remained in their homes and in the streets in the coastal city of Guayaquil (west) for days, waiting for health authorities to remove the bodies from the area that became the center of the pandemic in the country.

And now the helplessness is no better. “Experts” in Ecuador still wonder if the population is truly protected and can leave their masks behind, or if there is a vulnerable population that could be affected and cause worrisome outbreaks in the future.

This at a time when much advanced countries in Europe have left behind all covid measures including mandatory masks months ago and 25 countries worldwide, most of them advanced first world nations, have no entry restrictions at all, including no mandatory testing for foreigners.

After two years of mandatory mask use and millions in economic losses caused by the pandemic, there is increasing pressure to return to normalcy without the use of masks.

While the government continues to urge Ecuadorians to complete their vaccination schedule with the third dose and even get vaccinated with the fourth dose, many Ecuadorians do not want to do that.

Among other things, the negative reports of sometimes fatal side effects of the vaccinations, talk about vaccine induced AIDS and figures from countries such as Denmark, New Zealand, Israsel and the UK give pause for thought.

In these hyper-vaccinated countries, it is mainly the vaccinated who have to be hospitalized, and even among the dead, the proportion of unvaccinated is negligible.

In May, the government’s final decision on the elimination of masks in public places will be announced, a measure that many have called for.

FIRST LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRY WITH VACCINE MANDATE

Just how erratic and heavy-handed Ecuador’s Covid-19 strategy was, is also demonstrated by the fact that the country was the first and largely the only Latin American country to introduce vaccine mandates.

This controversial measure applied to everyone, including children as young as five.

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