The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed worldwide the multi-dimensional vulnerability of contemporary societies under the neoliberal logic. In a previous and insightful commentary, our colleagues from FLACSO Ecuador highlighted the failure of national land use planning and policies as the baseline condition for the weak national response to COVID-19 in Ecuador and for the acceleration of impacts on vulnerable people. This article will complement the aforementioned commentary with a preliminary contextualization of the pandemic in Ecuador, to account for structural socioeconomic and political problems of the country and to reflect on its current and future linkages with disaster risk reduction in Quito.