English text below 厄瓜多爾人口最多的城市，瓜亞基爾，有兩百六十萬市民，是厄瓜多爾西部太平洋海邊的一個港口城市。瓜亞基爾現在面臨一個很棘手的問題：被遺棄的死屍不時出現在街頭。那些街頭躺屍的視頻和照片正在全世界的社交媒體上瘋傳。
厄瓜多爾有3,000多已確診的新冠病例，其中多半都在瓜亞基爾。由於缺少檢測試劑，專家們說實際感染案例應該比3000高得多。瓜亞基爾的醫院都已爆滿，很多病人住不進醫院，得不到治療，導致一些病人病死在家裡或街頭。
死者家屬現在很難買到棺材，因為做棺材的工廠缺乏原材料。厄瓜多爾全國已居家限行，除了食物、藥品等必需品外，大部分物資，包括做棺材的木料，都已停運。
那些少數買到棺材的幸運兒面臨另外一個問題：沒人上門運走裝有屍體的棺材。在新冠疫情爆發前，市政工人每天大概運30具死屍去醫院，讓醫護人員確認死亡原因。現在每天有150具死屍需要被送去醫院檢查，市政工人和醫生都忙不過來。
在處理死屍的過程中還有一大瓶頸：拉美沒有火葬的習慣。拉美人大多是天主教徒，而天主教徒因為宗教原因都不會選擇火葬。拉美的習俗是在殯儀館舉辦完葬禮後，死者連棺材一起入土埋葬。瓜亞基爾本來有120多家殯儀館，但現在只有20來家仍開門營業，其它的全關了，因為大部分殯儀館老闆怕被新冠病毒傳染，不想為賺幾個錢把命搭上。結果等著開葬禮的死屍越積越多。
瓜亞基爾靠近赤道，是一座炎熱潮溼的港口城市。死屍放在家裡，很快便開始腐爛，奇臭無比。死者親屬沒有辦法，只好把裝有屍體的棺材遺棄在街頭。沒能買到棺材的家庭就只能塑料裹屍後遺棄街頭。
瓜亞基爾和整個厄瓜多爾的新冠疫情在未來幾週會更為嚴峻。
#How the coronavirus let the dead bodies pile up in the streets of this big Latin American city#
Guayaquil, the western port city of Ecuador with 2.6 million people, is the most populous city in the country. Now the city has a big problem: dead bodies are left in the streets. The videos of those dead bodies left in the streets have gone viral on social media all over the world.
Guayaquil has more than half of 3,000 plus confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ecuador. This number is much lower than the actual infected cases due to the lack of testing kits, according to the experts. COVID-19 has caused the collapse of the health system of the city. Many sick people couldn't be checked into hospitals as all the hospitals are full. Some of these sick people died either in their own homes or in the streets while waiting for hospital beds.
The relatives of the people who died have had problem buying coffins, which have been in short supply due to the lack of raw materials after the quarantine has impeded the transportation of most goods.
The lucky ones who somehow got hold of coffins have another problem on hand: no one comes over to pick up the coffins. Before the outbreak, the government officials used to pick up 30 dead bodies a day, with or without coffins, and transport them to hospitals for the medicos to determine the cause of death. Now they have to pick up and examine about 150 dead bodies a day. The work starts to pile up and it takes longer than ever for the dead bodies to be picked up.
One more bottleneck in the process of handling the dead bodies is that cremation is uncommon in Latin America. Most people in Latin America are Catholics and Catholics don't do cremation because of religious reasons. The dead bodies are buried underground after the Funeral Services are performed in the funeral homes. In Guayaquil, only 20 out of 120 funeral homes are still open as most owners of funeral homes closed the shop for the fear of being infected by the coronavirus. Again dead bodies pile up while waiting for the Funeral Service to be performed by the few funeral homes that are still open.
Guayaquil is a hot and humid port city near the equator. Dead bodies decompose almost immediately and the stench becomes unbearable very fast. People have no choice but to carry the dead bodies, with or without coffins, out of their homes and leave them on the street.
The situation in Guayaquil and Ecuador will get worse in the coming weeks before it gets better.
閱讀更多 傑西卡李碩 的文章
