Health authorities in Ecuador have reintroduced the mandatory use of face masks in enclosed spaces as a response to the increase in coronavirus infections and rising cases of other diseases, such as influenza.
The Emergency Operations Committee (COE) has held a new meeting after more than a month of inactivity to agree on the return of the masks, as reported by the Ecuadorian newspaper ‘El Comercio’.
Ecuador has registered in the last weeks an increase in the number of coronavirus infections, following the trend of other South American nations such as Peru -which confirmed the beginning of a fifth wave in the country-, or Colombia -which also decreed the return of masks-.
The increase in coronavirus infections, together with the return of other infections caused by viruses typical of the winter months, such as the flu, have motivated the COE to take this step.
Ecuador’s president, Guillermo Lasso, confirmed the end of the obligatory use of masks at the end of April, when he stated that the coronavirus pandemic was under control in the country thanks to high vaccination figures.
Ecuador’s health authorities have counted more than one million infections since the outbreak of the pandemic, and in the last few days more than 4,000 infections have been recorded in just one day.
