Colombia discards new COVID lockdown as new surge continues
January 11, 2021
Colombia’s vice-president ruled out a second lockdown on Sunday as the coronavirus is threatening to collapse healthcare while the government is trying to reactivate the economy.
The mayors of the capital Bogota and Medellin, Colombia’s second largest city, have locked down their cities for the duration of the ongoing long weekend to prevent a hospital collapse.
According to Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, the country is in the beginning of a second wave of coronavirus infections that is already causing more reported infections than the initial wave in September.
Colombia heads into 2021 with calls for quarantines to fight pandemic uptick A holiday season uptick in coronavirus infections will give Colombia a rocky start to 2021, Health Minister Fernando Ruiz said on Thursday, while doctors called for quarantines in hard-hit areas. We re going to have difficulties in the first two weeks of January, Ruiz said during an interview with Colombia s Caracol Radio, where he attributed growth in coronavirus cases to people mixing over the festive season.Reuters | Updated: 01-01-2021 00:22 IST | Created: 01-01-2021 00:16 IST
Representative image Image Credit: ANI
A holiday season uptick in coronavirus infections will give Colombia a rocky start to 2021, Health Minister Fernando Ruiz said on Thursday, while doctors called for quarantines in hard-hit areas.
Colombia has inked deals with pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and AstraZeneca to provide 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, President Ivan Duque said on Friday.
January 7, 2021
The mayors of Colombia’s capital Bogota and Medellin ordered a lockdown and a curfew on Thursday as a surge in COVID infections is saturating hospitals.
The measures to curb the spreading of the coronavirus are the toughest since April last year when the national government began a gradual reactivation of the economy.
In response to a warning of the Health Ministry, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez expanded a partial lockdown and Medellin Mayor Daniel Quintero issued a total lockdown that will last until Tuesday morning.
Newly registered coronavirus infections
According to Lopez, the arrival of the more infectious strain of the coronavirus is rapidly saturating Bogota’s healthcare system where hospitalizations are “through the rough.”
December 28, 2020
Colombia’s government refusal to provide COVID vaccines to some 900,000 undocumented refugees from Venezuela effectively could result in ethnic cleansing.
The refusal of far-right President Ivan Duque‘s to vaccinate the refugees spurred fierce criticism and fueled xenophobia targeting the 1.7 million refugees, many of whom are Colombian citizens, who are currently estimated to live in Colombia.
We have our priorities, which will always be the Colombian citizens.
President Ivan Duque
Academics warned that excluding part of the population makes no sense from an epidemiological point of view while leading opposition Senator Gustavo Petro stressed that “xenophobia is one of the pillars of fascism” and asked what would happen if Colombians abroad were excluded from vaccination campaigns.