Agent William Yugzi has traded his service weapon for a bio-security suit and photographs an unusual crime scene: the dead man suddenly died in his chair, glass of water and cookies in hand, attacked by the coronavirus.
In a hovel in Quito, this 38-year-old policeman has the task of listing the position of the body, already rigidly rigorously, and to check whether there are traces of violence.
With two other police officers from the criminology department, he is part of a “Covid team” dedicated exclusively to deaths due to Covid-19. On site, they are joined by a doctor from the Ministry of Health, the funeral directors and a disinfection service.
These special squadrons were put in place in order to prevent a further collapse of hospital and funeral services.
At the start of the pandemic, the morgues had been overwhelmed in Guayaquil, a major port in the southwest of the country. The bodies had accumulated there in the accommodation and even in the streets.
Quito being the new epicenter of the contagion in Ecuador, the police experts in criminology have been mobilized to identify and have the remains of patients who have succumbed to the virus removed more quickly outside hospitals.
Squadrons of a new kind
AFP was able to support William Yugzi in his new task.
Pablo Sasig, 48, unemployed messenger, was sick with covid-19. One night at his home, he sat in an armchair at the foot of his bed while the rest of the family slept, according to his son Rodrigo, 23.
Rosa, his 78-year-old mother, found him in the morning, still sitting. She touched his forehead to check if he still had a fever, tried to wake him up, to no avail.
His call for help activated one of the 15 “Covid teams” of the police.
Ecuador, which has 17.5 million inhabitants, deplores some 10,000 deaths in six months, out of more than 105,000 confirmed cases.
The fear of contagion “is very present, but to identify a person we act with kindness”, underlines agent Yugzi.
The squadron arrives on the scene in a patrol vehicle, mute siren. Before entering the Sasig’s accommodation, the police put on their full protective gear.
Sudden deaths
The first to enter is the employee responsible for disinfecting the corpse and the room. He is followed by the doctor, then by the police. Gravediggers take action only when removal of the body is authorized.
Relatives then decide whether he will be cremated or buried.
Since April, around 300 people, confirmed or suspected cases of Covid-19, have died suddenly in Quito at home or in the street, but also in cars on their way to hospital or medical offices, according to the authorities.
The number of deaths from natural causes has increased sharply: 28,200 more between January and July compared to the same period in 2019, according to civil status. As in other countries, these figures are considered lower than reality.
Angel Medina, another police criminologist, takes Pablo Sasig’s fingerprints, which will be compared with the official register to confirm his identification.
Agent Yugzi takes one last photo: the dead man’s face with a “COVID-19 BODY TAG”: Case sheet “15149”, which specifies the victim’s name and identity number, will be attached to the wrist law.
Alert of a “Covid in progress”
Ecuador detected the first case of the new coronavirus on February 29. Within weeks, Guayaquil had become the epicenter of the pandemic in Latin America.
Faced with the health chaos caused by the pandemic, a special force of soldiers and police was created there and removed more than 1,400 bodies, accumulated in housing and the streets.
In this city, the second in the country, there were “corpses in decomposition for 15 days, a month” specifies agent Medina.
After recording the death of a woman victim of the virus in a house in the south of Quito, the “Covid team” is preparing to return to the police station. But a new alert is launched by the radio: “Possible Covid in progress”.
On a dusty football stadium, unused due to the ban on the use of sports facilities during confinement, lies a needy, under a makeshift shelter that he had tinkered with at the foot of the stands.
This old man was suffering from a cough and an ambulance even came, but he refused to go up there, according to neighbors. His corpse will be removed after being listed by the team as “probable coronavirus”.