Colombia hits death record for second consecutive day with 465 fatalities

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Sunday, April 25, Colombia set a new record in number of coronavirus deaths, as the Ministry of Health reported 465 fatalities, the highest figure since the start of the pandemic.

This is the second consecutive record number of deaths, after Saturday’s 440, and the country now registers 7 consecutive days with over 400 deaths. With yesterday’s figures, the country totals 71,351 fatalities, which has forced the authorities in the country’s main regions to take extreme measures, whose positive results are not yet visible.

One of these measures was taken in Antioquia, the department that daily tops the list of deaths, forced to transfer critical patients to other regions because its hospital capacity reached the limit.

In Antioquia, with 127 deaths on Sunday, authorities set up a container in capital Medellin to store the bodies of the deceased who could not be cremated due to high demand in crematoriums.

The third wave of the pandemic has pushed this and other regions of the country to its most critical state since the health emergency began in March 2020.

The other deaths occurred mainly in Atlántico (92), Bogotá (73), Valle del Cauca (37), Magdalena (26), Cundinamarca (17), and La Guajira and Santander (each with 12).

The Ministry of Health yesterday reported another 17,190 positive cases of Covid-19, bringing the country’s total number of infections to 2,774,464. Of these, 105,614 remain active, or 3.81% of the total, while 2,588,204 have been reported as recovered, corresponding to 93.29%.

The highest number of cases was reported yesterday in Atlántico (3,534), Bogotá (3,523), Antioquia (3,092), Valle del Cauca (1,212) and Cundinamarca (745).

These regions have also accumulated the highest number of infections, a list headed by Bogotá (766,778), Antioquia (456,195), Valle del Cauca (232,486), Atlántico (223,686) and Cundinamarca (123,087).

Colombia, which has administered 4,400,615 vaccines, of which 1,391,979 correspond to second doses, on Sunday received a batch of 912,000 AstraZeneca vaccines through the W.H.O. Covax facility, and expects to advance in its immunization plan against Covid-19.

According to Minister of Health Fernando Ruiz, the distribution of these new doses, through which the country has now received 6.5 million, is key at a time when Colombia is experiencing the third and most serious wave since the beginning of the pandemic.