QUITO, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Ecuadoran Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that the country registered 608 new cases and 29 more deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 107,089 and the number of deaths to 6,277.
The ministry added that another 3,634 deaths that were likely caused by COVID-19 have been registered, but these have yet to be officially confirmed.
The ministry said that a sizable percentage of the total number of infections in the country are concentrated in the province of Pichincha, the current epicenter of the virus in the country, which has registered 22,209 cases.
Most of the cases in this province have been reported in the capital city of Quito, which on Saturday registered 20,085 cases. Quito began to see a sustained growth of infections after the quarantine was relaxed on June 3 in an attempt to reactivate the economy.
Ecuador entered on June 1 a process of gradual reopening to reactivate the economy, but the loosening of restrictions has been met with failure to follow preventive health measures, leading to new outbreaks in some cities. Enditem
