Here’s another Saturday to Saturday summary of our Covid-19 numbers in Ecuador. One thing to note is that on April 9, Ecuador changed their method of counting Covid-19 cases, retroactively adding cases to the day that symptoms first appeared. Before, they were counting confirmed cases based on test results. This totally messed up our daily counts, but you can see the change between April 4 and April 11 (3465 to 7257).

We’ve started tracking cases in our province of Pichincha; we don’t have a way yet to track deaths here. So in the list the first and larger number is cases in Ecuador (in parenthesis), then Ecuador deaths, then Pichincha numbers (in parenthesis).

• April 4 (3465) 172 deaths
• April 5 (3646) 180 deaths
• April 6 (3747) 191 deaths
• April 7 (3995) 220 deaths
• April 8 (4450) 242 deaths (404 cases in Pichincha Province)
• April 9 (4965) 272 deaths (494  in Pichincha)
• April 10 (7161) 291 deaths (579 in Pichincha)
• April 11 (7257) 315 deaths (606 in Pichincha)

We continue under a strict curfew (2 p.m. to 5 a.m.) and strict driving restrictions. We continue to work from home, exercise, and keep contact with family and friends in the U.S. We really don’t see an end in sight to this situation here, as our Covid-19 numbers continue to increase. We’re going on four weeks of quarantine because of our age.

This weekend is the first weekend ever with no private vehicles allowed on the road; during the week people can drive their cars one day a week based on the last digit of their license plate. Nationally it is not clear if this applies also to taxis, but Quito is insisting that it does. We thought you would enjoy a few of the city notices from social media.

Driving Restrictions:

And here’s some encouragement to fly the Ecuadorian flag at home Easter Sunday (“ring bells of hope”):