Quito, Apr 29 (IANS): The use of masks will no longer be mandatory in both open and closed spaces in Ecuador, President Guillermo Lasso announced.

Removing his face mask as a symbolic act, Lasso on Thursday said that this day had been longed for by Ecuadorians for a long time and that a normality had finally come with the "successful" vaccination drive started from January 2021, reports Xinhua news agency.

In recent weeks, five out of every 100 PCR tests in Ecuador came out positive, "a clear sign that we have practically defeated Covid-19", said Lasso.

Health Minister Ximena Garzon said that Ecuador had registered no outbreaks after the recent Carnival and Easter holidays and that the 5 per cent positivity rate in PCR tests had been maintained for four consecutive weeks in the country.

"We are in the epidemiological transition phase, that is, we are going from an epidemic to endemic indicators, and we want to continue like this," Garzon said.

In the past four weeks, 1,073 Covid-19 cases and one death had been reported, indicating a drop in the epidemiological curve, according to the Health Minister.

Ecuador has reported a total of 869,124 cases and 35,588 deaths from the disease so far .

Over 34 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered throughout the South American country, where 13.8 million people, or 82.9 per cent of the population, have completed the two-dose schedule.