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The city is going through a second peak of contagion with covid-19, despite the restrictions and efforts made by all sectors in 2020. What did we do well or what did we lack? Analysts and authorities respond.
With a cut to January 10, according to the Saludata website, there were 49,107 active cases and intensive care units (ICU) in general were at 89.5 percent and covid, at 91.5%. The towns with the most active cases are: Suba, with 6,043; Kennedy, with 4,925; Engativá, with 4,229; Usaquen, with 3,037; Bosa, with 2,228, and Fontibón, with 2,124.
The high contagion led the Mayor’s Office to declare the red alert in the hospital system and the strict quarantine in Suba, Engativá and Usaquén, and since Tuesday to Kennedy, Fontibón and Teusaquillo.
(How serious can the second wave of covid be in Bogotá)
‘Health over economy’Ricardo Navarro, dean of medicine at the National University
– The force of the contagion depends on us, therefore we should not lower our guard until the regulatory entity orders the long-awaited opening. Definitely, we all owe ourselves to everyone and health must be above the economy.
– Intensive care units (ICU) and the health institutions have trained personnel, supplies and other equipment for care, and they have been prepared in these months, but they can be overwhelmed here and anywhere in the world, due to the irresponsibility of citizens.
– Higher education institutions, schools in the health sector, trade union and academic organizations, and scientific societies must contribute to the hard work of civic culture, so that it is permanent and to strengthen the institutionality and governance of the State.
(Of interest: With the increase in covid cases, what will the return to school be like?).
– The regulatory entity must continue with continuous monitoring (case tracking and citizen surveillance) and provide permanent information, making positive reinforcements. Immunization is on the near horizon, but it requires time and a judicious and just order. Meanwhile we have to continue with personal protection measures until further notice.
‘More resort to police measures’Luis Jorge Hernández, epidemiologist and professor at Uniandes
– The pandemic has increased the authoritarian approach of government entities. Police measures are used more than citizen adherence and conviction. Concepts such as ‘strict’ or ‘indiscipline’ have been used more.
– 70 percent of the population has kept biosafety standards, but the ‘for some, all pay’ has predominated. The pandemic is not only an epidemiological problem, but also a social and economic one; 60 percent of Bogotá is informal and there is a relationship between the pandemic and the indices of citizen insecurity.
– The population has been more passive object of interventions than active subject; nobody consults it, nobody informs it. Children and adolescents, as well as the elderly are the most affected.
(Also read: What can or cannot be done during the quarantine in Bogotá?)
– Quarantines are not harmless, it is not just about locking up people, we are putting them to choose between several evils. Mental and chronic diseases, overweight and obesity have increased. The virus likes closed spaces and the government is keeping people as objects.
‘Quarantines are the last measure’Ómar Oróstegui, Executive Director of Futuros Urbanos
– People had let their guard down in a month like December, which traditionally has more social interaction. Little effect had the measures to control the crowds, as observed in San Victorino and the celebration of the soccer final.
– Quarantines are the last measure, when the other strategies did not generate the expected results. Bad citizen behavior and inappropriate messages generated a false trust that today takes its toll on us.
– The experts have been correct in their projections. However, although the administration had time to better prepare, to face this second wave, concerns that drug stocks are insufficient to attend an event of greater magnitude such as the one expected.
(We suggest: ‘The viral load is increasing in the city’: Claudia López).
– The trends show us that what happens before in other cities will also manifest itself in Bogotá with similar effects. Again we lacked anticipation, and although the Saludata indicators are a good instrument, they do not make much sense if they are not updated in real time to make better public policy decisions.
– To assume that the increase in cases is due to the new virus strain, without any supporting scientific evidence, is to ignore errors in the control of agglomerations and tracking. At least, how many of those who returned from the UK developed symptoms in recent weeks should have been analyzed to confirm the hypothesis.
– The insistence on returning to classes with the alternation model in the midst of the peak of the pandemic is worrying, as it also implies that parents must go out to buy school supplies, exposing themselves to a greater risk of contagion, since they usually make such purchases in crowded centers such as San Victorino.
Usaquén is one of the three towns in quarantine since January 5. So are Suba and Engativá.
César Melgarejo / EL TIEMPO.
‘We have the clearest medical protocols’Jorge Cortés, infectious disease doctor at the National University Hospital
– Despite being a new virus, the observed behavior was expected, that is, a second wave of cases, which could lead to a greater number of events. What nobody knew was when it was going to happen. What finally happened brought a mixture of bad luck and idiosyncrasy.
– The appearance of the second wave combines the bad luck that it appears in December, and not in October or November, the usual rainy season for Colombia, with our idiosyncrasy of celebrating Christmas with mass gatherings, purchases and favored commercial activities by local and national governments, and the perception, by what happened in previous months and the news about vaccines, that the risk could be lower. All of this resulted in a large number of family gatherings, uncontrolled activities, and increased numbers of infections – the second wave.
(Will you be able to exercise or travel in these days of quarantine in Bogotá?)
– In hospitals, supplies were in short supply during a good part of December; Debts from the lazy months at the beginning of the pandemic took a toll on institutional budgets, the usual difficulty in getting qualified work at the end of the year, and the high number of infections among staff. All of this makes the situation considerably more difficult.
– We have the clearest medical protocols and management, we already know what to do with patients and the high influx of patients with covid. This makes it easier to carry out diagnostics and handling, although fatigue increases in an exhausted work group and, in many places, poorly paid.
This is how the doctors of the El Tunal hospital work in one of the ICUs that cares for coronavirus patients in Bogotá.
Cesar Melgarejo – THE TIME.
‘This second peak is being more drastic’Luis Ernesto Gómez, Secretary of Government of Bogotá
– This second peak is being more drastic than the first. Citizen culture is the most effective vaccine we have today to overcome this new peak and save thousands of lives. Today we need it more than ever. We already did it once and we are going to do it again.
– Also, the transformation in the management itself from the public point of view. The pandemic forced us to respond to the great challenges that it imposed on us, and this implies putting the accelerator on the processes to quickly assume humanitarian aid, promote economic recovery in the neighborhoods of Bogotá and take forward what is needed to improve the situation from the people.
– The challenge has been part and parcel; not only for the institutions that we must make the best decisions to take care of the health and life of millions of Bogota citizens, but of all of us who live in this city.
– The distancing, hand washing and the use of masks are not a speech, they are measures that must be taken seriously, otherwise it may cost us our lives.
And one last lesson, and no less important: recognizing citizen demands has allowed us to anticipate the institutional response and guarantee the rights of all citizens in a year as shocked as 2020.
– We will continue to do so in this new year. Dialogue has been fundamental in attending to the more than a thousand protests that have taken place in Bogotá during the pandemic.
Keep reading:
– The towns of Bogotá that will begin quarantine on Tuesday.
– With the curfew in Cundinamarca, can I travel by road?
GUILLERMO REINOSO
Editor Bogotá
TIME
Twitter: @ guirei24
