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The Secretary of Health of Bogotá, Alejandro Gómez, explained at a press conference that currently, according to the positive patients per day and hospitalized at this time, We are experiencing a second wave of the covid-19 disease in Bogotá and a third is very likely in the first months of next year.
He expressed that what we are experiencing began in the last week of November and that we have already passed an average of 900 or 1,000 positive patients per day to 2,400 or 2,500.
(See: Why does Claudia López say that Bogotá is in the 2nd peak of the pandemic?)
The health expert made a clarification and it is the difference between wave and peak. The first refers to the increase in the number of daily patients and in hospitalization that causes the curve to be observed rising and the peak is when that curve breaks, that is, it reaches the maximum point.
“At this moment we are rising in a second wave of the disease, we have not reached the peak, but we will do so to the extent that for two or three days in a row the number of patients is lower than the previous day, that is the statistical manifestation “, said the Secretary of Health.
He explained that the second peak that was expected for the second half of November and the first of December was delayed a bit. “We believe that due to the care measures and the civic culture in Bogotá. But the message is that we are prepared to overcome the second peak of the pandemic.”
Also read: ‘In Bogotá no ICU has been closed due to lack of medicines’
Due to this, the need for hospitalization in Intensive Care Units (ICU) began to increase. At this time the city has 2,239 ICUs. When the pandemic started there were 940. “Fortunately, the city has been preparing itself, and thanks to that we serve all citizens“Gomez said.
Bogotá is on a hospitable orange alert and has remained that way. “For now we are not going to raise the alert level. We have the necessary capacity on the issue of beds with 420. But it does not mean that we spend it happily,” said the secretary.
Regarding the issue of drug supply, Gómez explained that he maintains permanent communication with the National Government and that they are working on imports from Mexico, Chile, among others. The shortage is global due to the serious situation of the pandemic in other regions of the world. “In Bogotá we set up unified purchases, today medicines are beginning to arrive, and that will allow us to function with a certain level of tranquility. Not all of them are short of time, that depends on the level of consumption. For now there are enough in Bogotá.” Gómez clarified that with the medications that are available, the city can be calm until the first week of January.
The third peak
The health secretary said that, as announced by the mayor of Bogotá Claudia López, it is most likely that there will be a third peak of the pandemic in the capital. “That gives me grounds to talk about vaccination. As it has not yet started, I must say that the population of Bogotá and Colombia is large enough to have a third upward movement, probably in February.”
He added that when citizens return to normal activities but the vaccination process begins, that third wave will probably not occur. “It is something that we will only see then but, probably, yes we are going to have a third wave, it depends on when the vaccination starts.”
Vaccination
Gómez confirmed that today a meeting will be held with the Minister of Health Fernando Ruiz Gómez, and that in this the percentage of vaccines that the capital will receive will be known, which should be between 15 and 30 percent of those received by the country. “In addition, Bogotá has always accounted for 30% of the country’s covid cases. It is fair,” said the official.
The vaccines, he explained, are not going to arrive all at once. The Ministry will explain when the first ones arrive. “All this requires a special logistics that Bogotá has“.
DRAFTING BOGOTÁ
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