RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “On Saturday, Sunday and Monday we are all going to stay at home, we will be in general quarantine throughout Bogotá, will be enabled strictly essential supply activities, health, obviously vaccination will be every day because vaccination is part of taking care of us,” said Lopez.
In Bogotá, both positive cases and the occupation of Intensive Care Units (ICU) have increased in recent weeks, and to date, the city has accumulated 694,715 infections and 14,506 deaths.
Lopez explained that this measure and others such as the “pico y cédula”, in which people’s circulation is restricted according to the last digit of their identity card, were approved yesterday in an Extraordinary National Epidemiological Committee in which Minister of Health Fernando Ruiz was present.
According to the mayor, the “pico y cédula” for shopping, banking, and notary services began at zero hours this Tuesday and will end on Monday, April 19 at 23.59.
Lopez also met with health service providers representatives and assured that from today until April 13 there will be mass testing for covid-19, screening, and isolation of those who show symptoms in those tests.
“Bogotá is capable of performing up to 20,000 tests daily, with results in 48 hours,” said the official, which will allow early detection of contagions to ensure isolation and mitigate the speed of spread that is reflected in demand for beds in ICUs and hospitalization.
With these measures, the Colombian capital seeks to increase hospital capacity, contain community transmission, and reduce the third peak impact that is estimated to occur in the last week of this month.
“We have had a week of very high growth, the level of positivity that we are finding in the tests doubled, it went from 9%, 10% to be at 20%, 22% at that rate we are going to have a great pressure of the hospital system, and we also grew the request for ICU, both for covid and non-covid, and that makes us be closing at 70% occupancy,” detailed Lopez.
These new measures are in addition to those announced on Monday, which order the suspension and rescheduling of medium and high-complexity procedures that may require intensive care units.
Other Colombian cities have adopted mobility restrictions against the pandemic that has left 2,456,409 people infected and 64,293 dead in the country until today.
Source: efe