The number of people who died of COVID-19 in Colombia has risen to levels not seen since August last year, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.
According to the ministry, 138 people died in the 24 hours before its daily report on the coronavirus.
The last time authorities reported a daily number of deaths this high was at the end of the coronavirus’ deadliest wave in the first half of August last year.
Also infections have risen sharply after the National Health Institute confirmed the arrival of the Omnicron variant in December.
The Health Ministry said Sunday that it had registered the highest number of daily infections since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020.
The latest wave is considerably less of a burden on hospitals as previous ones that collapsed municipal healthcare systems.
One third of hospital beds and 61% of intensive care units were available, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.
The relative ease with which Colombia’s healthcare systems are dealing with the coronavirus infections appears to be the result of their increased capacity and mass vaccination.
According to the Health Ministry, almost 25 million people have been fully vaccinated since the beginning of the government’s National Vaccination Plan in February last year.
This is almost half of Colombia’s entire population.
More than 4.5 million people have received an additional shot to boost their defenses against the virus.