Colombia reports 530 Covid-19 deaths, new daily death record (May 15)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombian health authorities reported this Saturday 530 deaths due to Covid-19, a new daily death record, surpassing the figure of 505 fatalities reported on April 29th.

Of the deaths of the day, 461 correspond to previous days, and the highest number was in Bogota (133), which is in hospital crisis due to the third peak of the pandemic and has had its health system collapsed for several days so that serious patients are being referred to other cities.

It is followed by the departments of Antioquia (81), Atlántico (59), Valle del Cauca (40), Cundinamarca (36) and Santander (26).

There were also 18,873 new infections for 3,103,333 cases, of which 109,661 remain active, and 2,902,646 are classified as recovered.

DAILY INFECTIONS AND VACCINATION

The regions with the highest number of infections were Bogotá (4,596), Antioquia (2,024), Santander (1,353), Atlántico (1,273), Valle del Cauca (1,240), Cundinamarca (1,013) and Bolívar (998).

The highest number of accumulated infections are in Bogotá (861,997), Antioquia (503,531), Atlántico (258,026), Valle del Cauca (251,550), Cundinamarca (141,818) and Santander (116,642).

Today, 80,021 tests were processed in the country, 46,689 of which were PCR samples and another 33,332 antigen samples, for a total of 15.8 million tests performed to date.

Likewise, 7,232,840 vaccines against Covid-19 have been administered in Colombia, 188,196 today, of which 2,764,693 correspond to second doses.

SITUATION IN BOGOTA

According to the Health Secretariat, in Bogotá, there are patients in 2,477 of the 2,644 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for all types of patients.

Authorities have expressed their alert because the city is going through the third peak in the middle of demonstrations against the government of President Iván Duque, which began 18 days ago.

“Yesterday, the requests that were received (…) for covid and non-covid patients were around 350. Of these people, some can be located, and with others, we are taking longer,” said the Secretary of Health, Alejandro Gómez.

The official in charge because the mayor, Claudia Lopez, and the Secretary of Government, Luis Ernesto Gomez, both have Covid-19 – asked people from Bogotá who are infected to accept the transfer to another city to be treated in an ICU.

“It is essential that people access the service. If they enter an ICU in Bogotá, they will not be able to see the patient either,” said the mayor in charge.