After 31 months since the National COE was activated due to the covid-19 pandemic, the agency announced on October 19, 2022 that it will stop meeting and will do so when the Ministry of Health or the President of the Republic consider it pertinent.
The decision was announced by the Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata, during the meeting held in Quito. The official pointed out that since 2020 the COE has met daily, weekly or every 15 days, depending on the epidemiological situation.
Due to the good epidemiological indicators, one of the resolutions of the National COE of this October 19 is the elimination of the requirements for travelers to enter the country.
In this way, from October 20 from 00:00, it will no longer be necessary to present the vaccination card with the complete schedule, nor the PCR or antigen tests.
Zapata pointed out that in the event that there is a covid-19 alert in other countries, the Ministry of Health must inform the COE of the relevance of requesting the requirements again.
For his part, the National Undersecretary of Surveillance of the Ministry of Health, Francisco Pérez, mentioned that the figures regarding covid-19 are positive and for nine consecutive weeks there has been a decrease in infections in all provinces of the country.
Mortality has also decreased and in epidemiological week 40 there were two deaths.
The official added that in the last week no people hospitalized for the disease were registered in the Ministry of Health.
“We have gone from an acute phase of contagion to a phase of decreased transmissibility. We have the pandemic under control in the country,” Pérez assured.