Playas, in the province of Guayas, is one of the 21 cantons in the country that have a red epidemiological traffic light, a system with which there are more restrictions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The national Emergency Operations Committee (COE) implemented traffic lights with the aim of measuring the risk of virus infection in the population. Red represents high risk; yellow, medium; and green, low level.
Until Tuesday, February 8, another 166 cantons are in the yellow regime and 34 localities are in green. Periodically (every week) the national COE reviews the health situation in the country and based on the incidence, lethality, speed of contagion, hospital occupation and vaccine coverage, approves the classification of the localities, according to the traffic lights provided.
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However, the cantonal COE have the power to set their regimes according to their reality, as happened in Guayaquil, which since last Sunday adopted alert 2 (according to its own scale) equivalent to the yellow traffic light.
In Guayas, a province that until February 2 had 124,696 infections, according to the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), Playas and Colimes are the two cantons with a red regime.
This implies, for example, that outdoor activities on beaches, parks and open spaces can be fulfilled with a capacity of 50% and massive acts are prohibited.
Meanwhile, essential tasks in markets, financial entities and public services are carried out with 30% capacity and restricted hours.
“At this moment I can tell you with certainty that I have zero cases of COVID reported in the basic hospital in Playas and zero hospitalized (…), in January in the second week there were 145 cases of COVID reported, but the fourth dropped to 20 and today In February, in this first week, we have zero,” said Dany Mite, mayor of Playas, a canton that, according to the MSP, had a total of 767 infections (as of February 2).
Hence, the municipal official said he disagreed with this resort in Guayas being located at a red light, since the restrictions affect the tourist activity that represents an important item in the canton’s economy.
The mayor indicated that in restaurants the permitted capacity is 70% (although with a red traffic light it is 30% indoors and 50% outdoors) and the hours allowed for tourists to enjoy the beach are from 06:00 to 18:00: 00.
Next Monday the cantonal COE of Playas, a town of around 60,000 inhabitants, will make an evaluation and hopes that on Tuesday the national body will classify it in a regime with fewer restrictions.
And this, because beyond the incidence of infections, according to Mite, in this canton there are 80% of people vaccinated against the virus with a complete schedule (two doses) and 30% of the population has already been inoculated with the third booster. .
Esperanza López, president of the Chamber of Tourism, Beaches chapter, mentioned that if an average of 120,000 tourists arrived at the resort on a seasonal weekend, today that rate has been reduced by half.
“We do not understand why they qualify us, they put us all in one bag, knowing that the different cities and cantons maintain a different vision, each one has its own different reality,” she said.
At the national level, until February 2, the MSP reported 752,635 cases of coronavirus. According to the authorities, the positivity of COVID-19 has dropped to less than 50% in the last week in Ecuador and therefore there are fewer cities that maintain a red light.
In that classification they are more than the two cantons of Guayas (Playas and Colimes) Nangaritza, Sevilla de Oro, Montecristi, Huamboya, Tiwintza, San Miguel de los Bancos, Cascales, Putumayo, Tisaleo, Guamote, Taisha, Yacuambi, Alausí, Urdaneta , Loreto, Arajuno, Pastaza, La Libertad and Palanda.
In Colimes, which had 343 infections until February 2, the control of the pandemic becomes complex due to a certain reluctance of the inhabitants to be vaccinated and due to the non-compliance with biosecurity measures such as the use of the mask and social distancing.
They have even been made by anti-vaccine groups that promote the rejection of immunization.
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This was said by Sandra Coello, head of the cantonal Risk Management unit, who pointed out that since there is no hospital in Colimes, patients with the virus are treated in Balzar, a canton located 35 minutes away.
The official said that this Friday afternoon she would hold a meeting with the health table of the MSP in which she would be informed of how the hospital occupation is in terms of patients from Colimes.
Due to the breach of biosafety regulations, he was not optimistic about moving to a new regimen next week. “I think we are going to continue in the red because we do have deceased people, positive with COVID,” Coello explained.
He stated that the virus has even affected municipal personnel, which is why, he added, during the first days of January, 30% of collaborators were telecommuting. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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