Colombia feels the blow of a voracious pandemic that has left 100,000 people dead

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The pandemic has plunged Colombia into an abyss with more than 100,000 deaths and almost four million contagions, with no end in sight to the third peak for almost three months has overwhelmed the country’s hospitals.

Deaths have increased in recent weeks and in the first 20 days of June alone totaled 11,160, with an average of 558 per day.

As of yesterday, the country had 99,934 deaths, and this Monday will exceed 100,000, while the accumulated number of infections is 3,945,166.

Even though from the beginning, one of the priorities of the government of Iván Duque was to avoid deaths at all costs, the pandemic is moving at its own pace, and the country is now ranked tenth in the world in both deaths and infections.

MORE THAN 1,900 DEATHS PER MILLION

The Vice Minister of Public Health, Luis Alexander Moscoso, considers that the high number of deaths is proportional to more than 50 million inhabitants.

“Colombia today has a mortality rate of close to 1,900 people per million (inhabitants),” said Moscoso, recalling that neighboring countries have higher rates, such as Brazil’s 2,300 or Peru’s 5,600, according to the statistics portal Worldometer.

However, others with larger populations have a lower rate, such as the United States, with 1,854 deaths per million, and Mexico (1,775).

Moscoso explains that when analyzing death figures, it is also necessary to consider “the issue of registration”, which in some countries is limited.

“In Colombia, we study all the patients, and we believe that we have a good level of registration, what is observed is that the excess mortality has an explanation associated with covid,” he says, but “there are countries where we observe large differences between the registration of covid mortality and excess mortality.

This is because “there is no standardization of records for covid deaths,” which means that “there are countries that only record patients who die in the hospital setting, (…) which makes comparisons very complex,” he adds.

THE PROTEST EFFECT

According to the deputy minister, the third peak of the pandemic, the deadliest of all, which began in Holy Week, had “a significant drop” from April 20. Still, in May, there was a “hypercontagion” resulting mainly from the protests against the Government that began on April 28, which gave rise to a “re-peak” or a “fourth peak”.

“We came with a relative level of control and with a downward trend, but unfortunately, since May (…) we come with a very high peak that we call a hypercontagion, most likely associated with these massive mobilizations,” he added.

For the authorities, the high numbers of contagions in June, which are around 30,000 per day, are still a consequence of the social unrest of May, a month with “an extremely high level of contagion”, according to the deputy minister.

“Eighty percent of the people who died in June correspond to infections acquired during May, which reflects the complexity, the criticality of this fourth peak or this re-peak,” he explains.

June 8 also saw the total economic reactivation in the big cities, which, according to epidemiologists, has also contributed to the pandemic remaining at its current plateau.

“This month we will definitely continue with high occupancies (of ICUs) and with high loss of lives; we expect July to be a month of downward trend, but a prolonged decline,” says the vice minister, who expects this reduction to occur mainly in Bogotá, the main focus of the pandemic, and in other large cities, such as Medellín, due to the effects of vaccination.

HOPE IN VACCINES

According to data from the Ministry of Health, more than 14.9 million vaccines had been administered as of yesterday, 4.7 million of which correspond to second doses.

Vaccination in Colombia, aimed at 35.2 million people equivalent to 70% of the population to achieve herd immunity, began on February 17 with many delays and stumbles. Still, since then, it has accelerated, and some days about 350,000 doses have been applied.

“We will never be satisfied because we always want a higher rate, but we are making progress”, says Moscoso, who assures that not only has the percentage of vaccinated population increased “but also the vaccination of people at risk”, such as “those over 80 years of age in whom the rate is already over 88%”, while “among people from 70 to 79 years of age we are already over 75%”.