The birth of COVID-19 in the world marks a before and after in the history of today's society, which has experienced one of the most atypical moments in recent decades. Each country saw if the virus began to move a little faster, and Asia and Europe were among the first to feel the destruction of SARS CoV-2, and the cases began to increase. In Colombia, the first confirmed cases were recorded on March 6, 2020, and on the 21st, the first deaths from the virus were confirmed, and on the 24th they entered mandatory preventive quarantine.
Since then, two years have passed, and society has gradually regained its normality, but COVID-19 is still not a topic of the past. The arrival of vaccines against the virus marked a radical change in the measures implemented until then. The national vaccination plan in this country officially started on February 17, when Veronica Machado, a nurse and director of the Sincelejo University Hospital, was the first Colombian citizen to be vaccinated against the virus.
In the past two years, the country has experienced 4 cases of contagion, the first recorded in August 2020, exceeding 12,000 cases per day; the second recorded more than 15,000 infections per day in January 2021; and the third wave that occurred between June and July six months later, the country recorded more than 30,000 cases per day.With the arrival of the omicron variant, Colombia suffered a fourth wave of infections in January 2022, and more than 30,000 infections occurred per day.
According to the latest official report from the Ministry of Health (as of March 17, 2022), a total of 6,078,487 confirmed cases were recorded, 5,910,525 people recovered from the virus, and 139,391 citizens lost their lives due to COVID-19. Currently, there are 6,070 active cases in Colombia. 79,222,616 doses, 35,386,553 first inoculations, 27,981,667 second dose, 665 ,357 single doses and 9,589,039 booster capacities were applied throughout the country. 34,247,024 people already have a full schedule.
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This is a question that many people ask themselves, and is that with the passage of time, measures such as not using masks in open spaces in cities or municipalities where more than 70% of the population have been vaccinated with a complete plan in Colombia are becoming more and more flexible, however, despite the decline in cases, the pandemic cannot yet end.
It is important to note that the decision to end the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the state of emergency, will ultimately depend on the World Health Organization (WHO) through its Secretary-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Despite the fact that the WHO reported a significant decrease in infections in the United States and many countries in Europe, it has reiterated that it does not consider determining the end of the current pandemic. Therefore, some measures are no longer so drastic and that, in some way, allow a normal recovery in other societies, which is in contrast to what has happened in Asia in recent weeks, the number of cases and deaths caused by the virus has increased again, warning the authorities.
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Experts say that if cases fall, there is a high probability of killing thousands of lives every year. Unlike other endemic diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis, COVID-19 is unpredictable because new mutations can occur, which can become much more dangerous or contagious, as is the case with omicron.
Currently, health experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) are discussing when and how the COVID-19 pandemic can end, but this requires research on the behavior of the virus and how it can be considered endemic in some way.
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