Cali will enter a red alert and will have a new peak and ID due to the increase in covid-19 cases

Due to the increase in covid-19 cases in Cali, Mayor Jorge Iván Ospina announced on Monday night that the city’s hospital system will go into red alert.

This was stated by the president through his Twitter account. In addition, he noted that there will be more restrictions.

“Our health situation as a result of the Covid and the burden of disease caused by the closure of services during the quarantine is really difficult. In the community of Cali what is in danger is the lives of many, so we will escalate to red alert. We will have restrictions” , wrote.

You can read: Valle del Cauca exceeded 120 thousand cases of covid-19 this Monday

As for the new restrictions, the doctor said in El Lengua de Caracol that Cali is very likely to adopt a new peak and ID; and an extension of the curfew and prohibition measures.

“I want to tell people that decisions of this order are only made to save lives. Our ICUs, in some medical centers, are on the verge of having 100% occupancy,” he said.

Regarding the closure of some commercial sectors of the city, the Mayor said that it is still not clear, since although the increase in cases of covid-19 in Cali invites us to think about this alternative, the impact in economic terms would be too much strong for many Caleños, so for now, I would not adopt this measure.

“We have made a public investment to guarantee employment, but that is not enough, so we seek compensation and that the decisions taken (new peak and cedula, curfew and dry law) manage to maintain a harmony between what economic mobility and protection against covid-19, “he said.

The notice comes after the Ministry of Health and Social Protection reported that Valle del Cauca exceeded 120 thousand cases of covid-19 and reached 3,835 deaths from diseases associated with the virus, of which 2,696 are from Cali, the largest municipality affected del Valle by the new coronavirus.

According to the latest report from the Departmental Health Secretariat, 84,304 cases of covid-19 have been registered in the capital of Valle since the arrival of the virus in the region.

It should be mentioned that the mayor declared the orange alert in the city on November 27 due to an increase in infections in the city, but also due to the increase in the occupation of ICU beds and deaths.

To this measure was added the curfew and dry law between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., declared by Ospina on December 10 and runs until this Wednesday 16.

This in order to reduce the circulation of citizens to avoid the acceleration of the contagion of covid-19 in the Christmas and New Year’s season, without affecting the economic reactivation.

ICU bed occupancy exceeded 90%

According to the latest report from the Municipal Health Secretariat, Cali records a 90.5% occupancy of ICU beds. According to the report, some of the neighborhoods most affected by the pandemic at the moment are Valle del Lili, El Caney, Ciudad Meléndez, Las Vegas de Comfandi, Bochalema, among others.

For the Secretary of Municipal Health, Miyerlandi Torres, this phenomenon can be explained in that this is one of the most populated and densified areas of the city, where more than 35,000 people live.

“Valle del Lili, El Caney and the expansion area of ​​Cali are places where there are many apartments in residential units, which leads us to think that this type of construction concentrates a high population density and, the higher the population density, the greater the number of contagions ”, explains Torres.

The official adds: “In general, these residential units have a single store where they can buy, a single place where people go to eat, so there is a large population going to many spaces that, basically, are small (so they could constitute a source of contagion) ”.