Colombia’s prosecution “used to export cocaine,” says president
Colombia’s government coalition cracks
Colombia’s prosecution calls Uribe to testify over massacres...
Colombia’s peace commissioner replaced
Colombia registers 5 massacres in 48 hours
Colombia’s deputy chief prosecutor denies mafia links
War crimes tribunal indicts Colombia’s former army chief...
Uribe helped plan 1997 massacre, former warlord tells...
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal allows submission of former...
Colombia’s deputy chief prosecutor again linked to drug...
  • About
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
(Image: Andes University)
News

COVID-19 disproportionately killed Colombia’s poor

by Adriaan Alsema April 29, 2021
2.7K

The coronavirus is disproportionately killing Colombia’s poor, who make up more than 60% of the fatalities registered by the country’s statistics agency DANE.

In a report, DANE said that 64.4% of the 70,848 deaths analyzed by the statistics agency were categorized as people from the lowest three social stratifications.

According to 2018 estimates, 49% of Colombia’s population belongs to these stratifications, indicating how poor and lower-class Colombians were disproportionately victimized by the pandemic.

Another 32.3% of the deaths were people from the middle class, a group that makes up an estimated 35% of the national population.

The 16% of people designated as upper class contributed only 3.4% of the coronavirus-related deaths registered until April 11.

The statistics agency was unable to determine the social class of 2.9% of analyzed COVID-19 fatalities.

COVID-19 deaths per social class

The DANE study only studied fatalities caused by COVID-19 and did not include the social impact of the coronavirus and the economic crisis it caused.

A previous study by DANE showed that the crisis surged unemployment and underemployment while other studies showed that the country’s poverty rate skyrocketed throughout 2020.


Colombia tries to recover loss of formal jobs with informal labor


Regional differences

The study also revealed how the pandemic generated a much higher mortality rate in the Andean region while killing less people per 100,000 inhabitants in the tropical Caribbean region.

The virus additionally seemed to have more difficulty spreading in remote and underdeveloped areas where locals’ mobility is limited.

The exception to this apparent rule was the southern Amazonas province, which was hit by a an almost uncontrollable wave at the beginning of the pandemic when health authorities were still being equipped.


Colombia’s healthcare show: ‘If you get seriously ill, you die’


The reliability of this fatality rate is limited as health authorities’ testing capacity in remote regions was severely limited by complications in mobility.

COVID-19 mortality rate per province

 

coronavirusnewsletterpoverty

Contribute

Trending

  • Uribe helped plan 1997 massacre, former warlord tells Colombia’s war crimes tribunal

  • Colombia registers 5 massacres in 48 hours

  • War crimes tribunal indicts Colombia’s former army chief over extrajudicial executions

For patrons

Downloads for patrons

Related articles

  • Poverty in Colombia drops while perception of poverty rises

  • Poverty and inequality

  • Colombia’s cocaine market collapsed: farmers

  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Rss

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion