Covid-19: Colombia begins to require vaccination pass for entertainment venues

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombia started to require the Covid-19 vaccination card for all adults who want to attend public events such as concerts, fairs, restaurants, bars, or nightclubs from Tuesday.

This measure aims to increase the percentage of people vaccinated against Covid-19 in the country, where there are currently 22,940,295 people completely vaccinated, which corresponds to 45% of the population. This percentage increases to 64.4% (32,766,294 citizens) when talking about people with at least one dose.

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As of this Tuesday, November 16, bars, restaurants, concerts, dance halls, museums, theaters, or cinemas will ask everyone over 18 years of age for a vaccination card which must contain at least one dose.

As of November 30, the card will also be required for those under 18 years of age, and in the future, the rule could be extended to other places such as churches or airplanes.

Since the measure was announced at the beginning of the month, there has been a notable increase in people who have gone to vaccination centers.

The Ministry of Health explained that the National Vaccination Plan injections increased by 3.3% last week, while the average growth in other weeks was 1.5%.

“We are on an average of 400,000 vaccines daily in the last three days and, of those, almost 300,000 are first doses,” said last Friday the director of Promotion and Prevention of the Ministry of Health, Gerson Bermont.

In addition, major cities such as Bogota, Medellin, and Barranquilla already have more than 70% of residents with at least one dose. However, others such as Cartagena and Cali are still lagging.

CAUTION DUE TO INCREASE IN CASES

“December is risky. If we want to reduce the impact, we must exceed that 70% of vaccination, maintain biosecurity measures and the strict application of the card,” said the Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz.

Since last week there has been a slight increase in the number of cases of Covid-19 registered daily. However, at the moment, it does not exceed 3,000 per day, so the authorities are calling for caution in the face of a possible fourth wave, but without scaremongering.

In Colombia, there have been 127,833 deaths due to the disease, and 5,034,266 cases have been registered, of which 14,455 remain active.