President Ivan Duque plans to lift restrictions on almost one third of Colombia while 40% of the country’s doctors and nurses are considering resigning.
The president on Tuesday announced he sought to relax restrictions on more sectors of the economy to the despair of the Colombian Medical Federation (FMC) and other experts.
According to Vice-President Marta Lucia Ramirez, the relaxations of the lockdown that would take force on May 12 would apply to 15 million people, almost a third of Colombia’s population.
Colombia plans to lift lockdown in coronavirus-free regions
Duque driving medical personnel driven to despair
FMC vice-president Carolina Corcho stressed that Duque couldn’t possibly protect these people as the vast majority of healthcare workers don’t even have personal protection equipment.
According to the FMC, a poll among medical personnel revealed that 80% of the insurance companies who were ordered to provide personal protection equipment to hospital workers by Health Minister Fernando Ruiz never did so.
“We have not been able to protect health personnel, how are we going to do this with other sectors? Corcho told Caracol Noticias.
The same poll revealed that 40% of hospital workers are considering quitting their job, afraid they will be infected or infect others, according to the FMC executive.
Colombia’s health workers forced to buy their own personal protection equipment
“Duque making claims based on bogus data”
Medical investigator Camilo Prieto said Duque made a risky decision as he lacks reliable data that could credibly indicate the consequences of such a brash move.
The government has just made a risky decision, I could not call it good or bad because the available information is not sufficient to do so. What is clear is that there are no data available that would allow us to say that there is an evident slowdown in the contagion curve.
Medical investigator Camilo Prieto
Health Minister Fernando Ruiz, who the medical community refuses to talk to, said the decision was based on the lowering of the contagion rate from 2.4%, a rate disputed by the National Health Institute (INS), to 1.3%.
These rates, however, are from before the government ordered the reopening of manufacturing and construction, and based on gross underreporting, according to Prieto.
Colombia has done 2,523 per million inhabitants, this is nothing compared to Chile’s 24,600 and Uruguay’s 12,463, reported La Silla Vacia.
There is no data to claim that there is an evident slowdown in contagion.
Medical investigator Camilo Prieto
Especially in the allegedly coronavirus-free regions where Duque wants to lift almost all restrictions, local authorities don’t have the means to test for coronavirus let alone treat possible outbreaks.
Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez dismissed the government’s plans, pointing out that Spain took the same measures three weeks ago, which is now causing a rebound in deaths.
Lopez, who has taken a leading role in sinking most of the government’s plans to restart the economy, said Colombia should seek a “new normal.”
“Rather than reopening, we need to redefine a new normality in the city, which by definition will no longer be an agglomeration, but a collective space/time that prioritizes public health and living habits,” said Lopez.
The Bogota mayor and others have long sidelined the national government and are following their own timeline.
