Coronavirus in Bogotá: ‘The new crime is to go out without masks’: Claudia López – Bogotá

The Mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, does not hide her concern. Although he recognizes that in general the behavior of the people of Bogotá in the quarantine has been responsible, he is clear that with the entry of nearly 2.5 million workers due to the gradual opening of the economy, decreed by the President of the Republic, the risk of contagion, spread and death from the coronavirus increases.

And what worries him most is that, according to surveys from the same mayor’s office, 80% of people still believe that “they don’t have a chance to get it. But one in 10 infected can die from this cause, “he warns.

In dialogue with EL TIEMPO, the president makes several calls for citizens to adopt rigorous self-care on the street, where “the new crime is not to wear a mask” and people will have to keep more than a meter away. And for the avoidance of doubt, he says that if TransMilenio exceeds 35% occupancy, it will order its closure.

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Finally, she calls for people to stay home on Mother’s Day, which is celebrated today. “If we want to see mom next year, let’s not go visit her today,” he says.

Are you calm with citizen compliance?

I want to give three messages; First, that we have been in a relatively long quarantine, it has been almost seven weeks and this time has saved lives and has been worthwhile, we needed time to install capacity, to take better care of ourselves, to avoid contagion spike and the hospital system to collapse.

Bogotá went from representing an average of 50% of cases to representing less than 38%, we went from having a death rate of almost 7% to having a 3.6%, it fell by half; the contagion rate that started being 2.6%, that is, each infected person could infect three, fell to 1.1% in six weeks; We have 565 ICUs destined to serve covid-19, of those we have occupied between 30 and 35% in the last three weeks, and despite the fact that the number of positive cases continues to increase, because Bogotá is the city that is doing the most tests, we are carrying out 5,200 tests for every 100,000 inhabitants; we are followed by Valle del Cauca, which makes 3,000 for every 100,000 inhabitants and then there is Antioquia, with 2,400.

The decisions made by the President indicate that we have to change the way we take care of ourselves; Before it was staying at home, nobody could go out except four activities, now that proportion is going to be invested, more are those who are allowed to go out than those who are staying at home, so that the way of care is that we all act as if we had coronavirus; with that level of care we will go out. And there is an indicator that worries me, 80% of Bogota citizens still believe that they have no chance of getting it, that is what the polls say, and it turns out to be the contrary, we know for sure that 70% of the population can get it and that one of every 10 infected can die, people have not understood that; we have to make a huge pedagogical effort, now the care is that we assume that we all have coronaviruses.

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This disease is very delicate, in principle we will not have symptoms, we are infected, but we feel divinely, and by the time we feel bad we have already infected many people. The President authorized 2.5 million people to go out into the street, and they are going to go out believing that they are well, that they are not going to give them coronaviruses, we need people to come out with full awareness that as much as possible is to give them .

Where does the figure come from that 80% believe that it will not spread?

We carry out citizen culture surveys, by telephone and on the street to verify how we are doing.

Does that explain why there are so many people on the street?
I don’t know
There are many reasons. There are now 2.5 million people authorized to go out, but it is because people are not aware of the risk they are running; The more we go out, the more likely we are to catch it.

(Also read: Coronavirus: more than 3,000 Colombians have been repatriated)

Was there a rush by the National Government to make this decision?
I don’t know
I am not going to continue in that discussion because the one in charge is the President and he made that decision. For three or four weeks I have insisted that it may still be very premature, but I am not going to give that discussion anymore, the President authorized 2.5 million workers in Bogotá to leave and, therefore, what we have to do is learn to take care of ourselves with those decisions.

Citizens must be told that we are in danger of getting infected, that no one goes out without a mask, the new crime is going out without face masks to the street, sharing with others you have to have a distance of one meter, you have to be able to stretch your arms and not being in contact with anyone, you have to wash your hands every two hours, bathe when I entered from outside, so we have to live, otherwise, we will have a very high risk of contagion.

Now that we have a lot of geo-referenced information and technology applied to monitoring the disease, we know where there is more circulation of the virus and we can make territorial epidemiological fences, not only populational, but also non-territorial. Kennedy has the contagion rate skyrocketed, it is the only town that has a high contagion curve, we have to go and alert people, do more testing, more epidemiological surveillance and in that area maintain the restrictive quarantine for 14 days.

If the peaks are reached with all the openings, do you plan to return to a quarantine throughout the city?

We cannot assure that this will not happen again in Bogotá or Colombia, we must follow up, and what we are going to do is that every time we identify an area with high circulation of the virus we close it, as we are doing with these places of Kennedy. The other is that if TransMilenio exceeds 35%, we close it until it is reorganized.

We are doing everything staggered; First construction, on May 18 we will gradually open manufacturing and from May 25 we will start to open trade. So, with these three indicators we identify the areas of high circulation of the virus and we take special care, and if the ICUs exceed 70%, we would have to return to a general quarantine because we are at risk of hospital capacity collapsing.

What population indicators have you found in these highly contagious areas?
I don’t know
There are several factors, the density issue influences, Patio Bonito is one of the densest areas of Bogotá and has a very high circulation of the virus, the density influences, also what doctors call comorbidities, which are other diseases that the population has in that area, in addition to the virus there is obesity, diabetes and hypertension; When they already have all these diseases and they also get coronaviruses, their health condition is very complicated, and the number of contacts they had also influences; for example, we have a case in which we tested it and we were able to do the epidemiological route, we identified that more or less since when it could have been infected, it had had contact with 130 people.

How have you seen the behavior of Bogota citizens?
I don’t know
I would not want to ignore the great effort that citizens have made, on average 70% of people have been quarantined. Today we have been able to attend 510,000 families so that they could pass the isolation, one cannot ask people to stay home if they do not have what to eat.

How will the income of District officials work?
I don’t know
It is very difficult, the only thing we have decided is to maintain entities that are very flexible and can telework in their homes, but there are entities in which we have to start organizing shifts to enter face-to-face work, such as the Integration Secretariat, the Secretariat for Women or Uaesp.

How will public transportation work in a 24-hour Bogotá?
I don’t know
TransMilenio is working until 11 at night in the trunk and in the area until 12, but it has routes that start at 3 in the morning, so the hours that we are not covering are very little, and from now on we are going to operate according to the schedules set by each sector.

What other areas of the city are concerned about the circulation of the virus?
I don’t know
We are monitoring several areas, Kennedy is the most complicated, there we are going to install checkpoints to have medical and epidemiological teams, it is a whole territorial operation. Furthermore, we are monitoring other areas in Engativá, Ciudad Bolívar, Suba, Usaquén and Chapinero.

What message would you give to citizens who do not have to go outside but want to take advantage of new exceptions?
I don’t know
Let us be aware, the coronavirus kills, it is brutally infectious, it transmits at an impressive speed; if you don’t have an indispensable need to go out, don’t go out. Today is Mother’s Day, but if we want to celebrate our mother alive next year, please do not go to visit her; If you love your mom, don’t go see her because it puts her at risk.

We are doing well, this sacrifice has been worth it and we have invested this time in what we had to do, but we cannot let our guard down, come out as if you had a coronavirus, always wear a mask, always at a distance, do not touch anyone, do not enter contact with anyone; If you don’t have to use mass transit, don’t use it, and if you can walk or bike, the better; Avoid contagion, because either you can get sick or, unintentionally, you can end up making those you love most sick.

DRAFTING BOGOTÁ
TIME
On twitter: @BogotaET