A man in a suit sells protective products against the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador, on May 4, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

Ahmed Kaballo

Viral videos show heart-wrenching evidence of a healthcare system overwhelmed by COVID-19. Ecuadorian hospitals have been stretched to the breaking point and mortuaries are overflowing. Bodies are piling up at homes and on the streets and people begging for help- a situation that has spiraled out of control in the space of weeks.

Reporting on the situation is risky in itself. At least a dozen reporters have died during the pandemic and rights groups are making noise. The government is being accused of covering up the extent of its failure to handle the pandemic.

Press TV spoke to Sara Mondragón, a London-based activist from The Alliance of Unity for Life who are calling for Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno and his government to step down.

Some are dying at home or at hospitals before even being seen. People are buying their own protective equipment to pick up the bodies of loved ones from hospitals and cardboard coffins have been distributed as the death toll rises. Bodies are going missing and worried family members anxiously await news outside hospitals.

The tragedy unfolding in Ecuador is an ominous sign of what COVID-19 can do to rest of the developing world in countries where the Washington neoliberal consensus is prominent and where the health of millions is left to the mercy of the private sector.

PRESS TV, London