Colombia closes its worst month of pandemic with 17,000 deaths in June

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With more than 17,000 deaths reported in June alone, Colombia ends the most devastating month of the pandemic, in which only the advances in vaccination open a breath of hope in the face of the virulence of Covid-19 that led the country to surpass all its records of deaths, contagions and hospital saturation.

According to figures from the National Institute of Health, this month alone, 17,716 of the 106,544 deaths due to Covid-19 reported in the country in 16 months of the pandemic, i.e., 16.13%.

Likewise, the chain of infections seems not to have been broken yet, and the country continues to add tens of thousands of infections every day. With 33,594, last Sunday was the record number of cases, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Colombia is one of the five countries that registered the most new cases last week.

Another issue that has made the last few weeks difficult is Intensive Care Units (ICU) occupation, which in cities such as Bogotá, Medellin, and Cali, the three main cities in the country, has been above 90% for almost two months.

CAUSES OF THE CRISIS

The causes of the prolonged third peak, which has lasted for more than two months and continues with the upward curve of infections, can be summarized in four factors, as explained by epidemiologist Carlos Alvarez.

The first is “the circulation of new variants, mainly Alpha (identified in the United Kingdom) and Gamma (in Brazil), which are more contagious and are circulating in various regions of the country”, explained the expert, who is also the national coordinator of WHO studies on Covid-19 in Colombia.

Likewise, the rainy season that some regions of the country are experiencing has influenced the increase in the number of infections, since this is the time when “respiratory viruses,” such as the coronavirus, are transmitted the most.

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“The third factor is that, even though many people are vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19, there are many people still susceptible (to infection),” said the epidemiologist, adding that there is still a significant percentage of citizens who can contract the disease.

Finally, Álvarez points to “changes in human behavior” as the last factor, since “the perception of risk has changed due to Covid-19 and this has made compliance with regulations more flexible”.

The last two months in Colombia have been marked by massive protests against the government and the economic reactivation program that has reopened bars and restaurants with larger capacity and cultural and sporting events with a public present.

A BREATH OF HOPE

Although the current situation is difficult for the country, the advances in the National Vaccination Plan are a breath of hope because so far, 17,941,952 vaccines have been applied, of which 6,566,762 correspond to second doses and 87,968 to the Janssen formula, which is a single dose.

In this sense, 11,375,190 people have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 6,654,730 of them have their complete schedule, which means that 13.2% of the Colombian population is already fully vaccinated.

Alvarez sees as key the capacity of the Colombian health system to increase vaccination, especially because, he explained, it is expected that in the third quarter of the year, the country will receive more doses at a faster pace and that they will be added to the 25,351,904 doses that have been available between February and June.

He adds, however, “we must not lower our guard because, although it is expected that the country will come out of the third peak in the coming weeks, new variants such as delta, which has not yet been detected in Colombia, could “increase the number of cases.”

“People must be aware, individually and collectively, of what the circulation of the virus implies, that is to say, that it is also important that the community itself does not feel that the virus is gone, there is a strong pedagogical issue that needs to be worked on,” says Alvarez.

Likewise, he considers that once the contagions begin to decrease, the tracking of contagions must be strengthened, and those who contract the disease must strictly comply with the quarantine days to avoid infecting someone else and thus prevent the country from falling again in the future into a sanitary crisis such as the one it has experienced in the last two months due to the unending third peak of the pandemic.