The country of Ecuador which was slowly coming out of the novel coronavirus outbreak has been stuck with another blow. The country is witnessing a volcano eruption in the Amazon region leaving cities covered in ash.
While the Sangay volcano has made eruption for over a year now but the recent wild nature of the eruptions has left many cities in ash. The largest city in the country, Guayaquil is also affected. Benjamin Bernard of the Geophysical Institute of Ecuador said that the ask is likely to spread over the Guayas province and a huge quantity of ash is nearing Guayaquil. The Institute is expecting more such explosions in the coming months but is confident that no major eruption will occur.
Earlier this week, the flights coming into the airport of Guayaquil were stopped to clean up the runway. The ash had penetrated into public spaces and has posed a serious respiratory problem. In Los Rios and Chimborazo, roads were sealed off. Karen Figueroa, a 30-year-old homemaker, said,
“Now we have to wear the mask not only because of the coronavirus but also because of the ash that covers all of Guayaquil.”
Ecuador Is Just Recovering From COVID
Besides, Ecuador is also one of the worst affected countries in South America. As of Wednesday, the country has recorded over 43,000 cases and 3600 deaths. Brazil continues to remain the worst affected country in South America.
The broken healthcare system added to the problems of the crisis. However, in the last few days, the country saw fizzling out of the outbreak. The outbreak that began in the Wuhan city of China has spread to over 188 countries killing 414,000 people and affected 7 million people. India has reported 2.7 lakh cases with 7000 deaths so far. In terms of the number of cases, India stands at the 6th position in the world behind Spain, the United Kingdom, Russia, Brazil, and the United States of America. In terms of the number of recoveries, India stands at 8th position behind Iran, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Russia, Brazil, and the United States of America.
Source: India Times
