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After the confirmation of a covid-19 outbreak in Corabastos, the Bogotá city council began to assess the situation of the wholesale power station, the largest in the country.
Government Secretary Luis Ernesto Gómez, who confirmed on Thursday morning that there were seven positive cases of the new coronavirus, told EL TIEMPO that “It is very likely that there are more infected” in the wholesale plaza. The cases were presented in people from two premises of warehouse 13. “We are already making the epidemiological fence to determine preventive isolations,” said the official.
He added: “The District’s recommendation is that people who do not work in Corabastos and who do not make wholesale purchases refrain from going to Corabastos.”
Gómez explained that a change will be made in the supply schedules, in order to reduce crowds. “This will allow having no off-peak hours until 8 at night and peak hours between 8 at night and 3 in the morning, and the afternoon will be used for loading and unloading.”
Also, he assured, that the plaza will be closed once a week to guarantee comprehensive cleaning and disinfection. This process will be from 4 in the afternoon on Saturday to 4 in the afternoon on Sunday. At that time there will be no service. In addition, sanitary and epidemiological measures were taken.
The secretary explained that the contagion occurred because the biosafety protocols were not carried out, and for this reason the sealing of the premises involved proceeded.
The plant receives an average of 8,500 tons of food per day and about 10,000 vehicles enter, including about 1,400 trucks.
EL TIEMPO consulted experts who considered it a serious situation that a covid outbreak had occurred. Ricardo Navarro, dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the National University, said that the most important thing is the life and safety of people, and that in Corabastos there are people over 60, hypertensive, diabetic or even who may suffer from autoimmune diseases and obesity, which would be those with the highest risk.
“If there is only one case, there is already a great risk. That is why airports, commerce sites, universities, borders are closed. It would proceed drastically to close until further notice for the good of the community, unless it was known with evidence that they were people who already had immunity, “he said.
The pulmonologist and intensivist Fabio Varón referred in the same sense, for whom the problem with high-traffic and high-traffic centers, such as Corabastos, is that if there is only one case, it is very likely that many people have already been able to acquire the infection . }
“If there is no way to carry out massive tests in these areas, I agree that the measures have to be very fast and, probably, they will have to involve closure, although not total, but partial, with a very important limitation in the number of people that can transit, “he said.
For now, in the afternoon of this Thursday a cleaning and disinfection operation was carried out and it is traced who could have had contact with the infected. The preventive sealing of the two commercial premises was also made.
Corabastos reported in a statement that a command post was established and it was ordered to install 500 sinks, two first aid points, an ambulance service, and nursing assistants to take the temperature.
The Mayor’s Office recalled that the premises that do not comply with the sanitary measures and recommendations in Corabastos risk a sealing.
DRAFTING BOGOTÁ
