As the coronavirus spreads in Ecuador, bodies are being left on streets

Ecuadorean authorities said  they would improve the collection of corpses, as delays related to the rapid spread of the new coronavirus has left families keeping their loved ones’ bodies in their homes for days in some cases.

Residents of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, have complained they have no way to dispose of relatives’ remains due to strict quarantine and curfew measures designed to prevent the spread of the disease. Last week, authorities said they had removed 100 corpses from homes in Guayaquil.

But delays in collecting bodies in the Andean country, which has reported 1,966 cases of the virus and 62 deaths, were evident in downtown Guayaquil, where a man’s dead body lay on a sidewalk under a blue plastic sheet, according to a Reuters witness.