By Alexandra Valencia
QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuador will immediately lift mask mandates for both indoor and outdoor spaces thanks to significant gains made against coronavirus, President Guillermo Lasso said on Thursday.
The decision is based on vaccination figures of 87% for those aged 3 and over and COVID-19 test positivity rates of just 5%, he said, as well as an effort to give second booster shots to adults.
“From today in Ecuador it will cease to be obligatory to use a face mask in open and closed spaces in all national territory,” said Lasso. “It is a clear indicator that we have practically beaten COVID-19.”
The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals has fallen drastically, he added, as has the number of deaths from the virus.
Ecuador has gradually rolled back restrictions put in place because of the coronavirus, but still requires visitors to present either a record of vaccination or a negative PCR test.
Most of Ecuador’s 35,588 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths took place in 2020 during a dire outbreak in Guayaquil, which overwhelmed hospitals and morgues and sent the government scrambling to collect bodies left in houses and on the streets.
Colombia will lift a face mask mandate for some indoor spaces from May 1, the same date at which Peru is set to roll back its outdoor mask rule for areas where 80% of those 60 and older have had three doses of vaccine.
Masks are required indoors and outdoors in Venezuela and in indoor spaces in Chile, while the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro ended indoor mask mandates last month.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; editing by Richard Pullin)
