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Mayor Claudia López announced that this weekend there will be a new general quarantine in the city. Active cases continue to rise, while ICU occupancy continues at 92.3%.
Isolating yourself remains, so far, the best option to face the second peak of the pandemic in Bogotá. With the occupation of intensive care units (ICU) over 92.3% and 50,064 active cases, last night the mayor Claudia López announced that the night curfew will continue until January 28 and this weekend the quarantine will be repeated general in the city.
The first measure is taken in response to the guidelines that the National Government has given to the cities and departments with the highest occupations in ICUs such as Medellín or Cali, while the second was determined, according to the mayor, due to the effectiveness that it has demonstrated the measure in recent weekends.
“There are 50,000 active cases. But in the first peak there were more. However people are sicker at this peak, they are more critical. We told them ad nauseam not to have family gatherings, we found that the vast majority of people who are hospitalized were infected in December. Around 5,000 outbreaks were not in public transport, but in Christmas parties, ”said Mayor Claudia López.
As complementary measures, the Secretary of Health, Alejandro Gómez, announced that private entities, with their own clinics and hospitals in other cities, have carried out the transfer of patients. In total, the city has received 233 people with health complications and has referred 37 to cities like Barranquilla, between November and January. The idea is to keep ICU availability in the city above 120 beds.
In addition to this, they have been installing field hospitals in public institutions, in order to decongest the emergency rooms that in recent weeks have also been presenting high occupancy and, therefore, have been part of the calls for alerts from unions and doctors, who have been insisting on the need not only to take into account the care of the most critical patients. And although the reopening of the transitional hospital in Corferias has been proposed, the District does not rule it out as an option, but it does not have it as a priority, since proposals such as that of the Colombia Clinic to use hotels for the care of low complexity patients have been accepted .
Despite the optimism of Mayor López, as well as the Secretary of Health, regarding the stability in the ICU occupation and the plan to avoid a possible collapse of the health system, the number of active cases has continued to increase in recent days, approaching the 65,000 that were recorded during the most critical moment of the first peak. Likewise, in the last seven days, 85 ICU beds have been enabled, which has allowed the occupancy to not exceed 93%.
For Diego Rosselli, an epidemiology professor at U. Javeriana, these types of measures by the Mayor’s Office are the only ones that the District can take at this time. “They are fundamental. In addition, the District, and even the media, must start working again on the issue of pedagogy, so that citizens avoid going out and crowds ”.
Something similar assures Fernando de la Hoz, professor of epidemiology at the National University, who believes that sending patients to other cities shows that there are no more beds. “They must keep trying to close partially so as not to do more damage to the economy, which is also a big concern. For now there is nothing else to do but wait for this week to show a decrease in cases, because otherwise a new total closure could be used ”.
A contrary opinion has Luis Jorge Hernández, coordinator of the public health area of the Universidad de los Andes, who states that the failures have occurred from several fronts, because apart from the fact that the measures were relaxed in December, the District did not comply with the objective of 4,000 beds (projection that the Secretary of Health accepted was an error to announce), nor with the correct tracking of cases.
“The usual fear is that hospital capacity will be exceeded, which is already on the brink. Right now the December harvest of patients is being received and as there have been quarantines, it is expected that it will decrease, but these measures will not have a major impact, because in addition the interactions continue to occur and the only thing that is done is to make people more afraid ” .
The city continues to wait for a reduction in infections and with it the pressure on the health system. Although isolation is the option that the State has chosen, prevention and self-care remain the best strategies to prevent COVID-19 from reaching homes.
