RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombia registered this Wednesday a new record of coronavirus deaths, with 550 fatalities, due to the third wave of the pandemic that has the country’s intensive care units (ICU) on the border.
According to the daily bulletin of the Ministry of Health, most deaths occurred in Bogotá (139), followed by the departments of Antioquia (69); Santander (55); Valle del Cauca and Cundinamarca (50); Córdoba (24); Boyacá (16); Atlántico and Meta (15); Cesar, Norte de Santander and Tolima (13); Nariño (12) and Risaralda (10).
Overall, there were 24,233 new cases, mainly in Bogotá, with 9,158, followed by Antioquia (3,022), Santander (2,565), Cundinamarca (1,771) and Valle del Cauca (1,550).
The country has consistently reported new highs in cases and deaths since the beginning of June, and with these latest figures, totals 3,635,835 infections, of which 145,386 are still active (4%), and 93,473 deaths.
The Vice Minister of Public Health, Luis Moscoso Osorio, said today that different strains have been circulating in Colombia this year, making it very easy to transmit the virus, a situation exacerbated by the crowds in the last two months and the relaxation of epidemiological measures.
He also explained that demand in intensive care units has increased in recent weeks to 7,900 occupied beds, creating stress for the health system and difficulties in providing care.
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The regions with the most infections during the pandemic continue to be Bogotá (1,047,822), Antioquia (567,472), Valle del Cauca (282,550), Atlántico (278,311), Cundinamarca (181,802), Santander (151,905) and Bolívar (111,906).
On Wednesday, Colombia received a new shipment of 538,200 vaccines from the Pfizer laboratory under the bilateral agreement with the pharmaceutical company.
With this shipment, the country has already received 17,765,414 vaccines against the disease, of which 11,977,805 have been used, and 3,535,101 of them correspond to a second dose.