Suicide in Ecuador is becoming a concern in America. The Commission for the Right to Health of Ecuador considers that it would be pertinent to declare a health emergency. We recently learned that suicide cases in Ecuador have increased since the beginning of the pandemic. It is estimated that during the first 10 months of the year there have been 977 suicides, more than three a day.

 In a new annual report, ECLAC estimates that the total number of poor people in Latin America reached 209 million at the end of 2020, 22 million more than the previous year. In addition, it urges the creation of a new welfare state.If not properly addressed through policy the social crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic may also increase inequality, exclusion, discrimination and global unemployment in the medium and long term.

The pandemic has been affecting the entire food system and has laid bare its fragility. Border closures, trade restrictions and confinement measures have been preventing farmers from accessing markets, including for buying inputs and selling their produce, and agricultural workers from harvesting crops, thus disrupting domestic and international food supply chains and reducing access to healthy, safe and diverse diets.