"President of the Republic Lenin Moreno has appointed Luis Arturo Poveda Velasco as minister of labour and Juan Carlos Zeballos Lopez as minister of health. He thanked Catalina Andramuno and Andres Madero for the work done", the press service said in a release.
Amid the rapidly growing number of COVID-19 cases, the Ecuadorian government declared a state of emergency on 17 March, setting a curfew and limiting domestic movements.
Test tube with Corona virus name label is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2020
© REUTERS / Dado Ruvic
As of Sunday, the number of COVID-19 cases globally has surpassed 300,000 with more than 13,000 fatalities, according to the World Health Organisation. The main centres of the disease outside mainland China are Italy, the United States, Spain, Germany, and Iran. The infection recently spiked in the US, with over 2,500 newly confirmed cases, while Italy shows the highest death toll of over 4,800.
