Government calls for maintaining prevention measures against covid-19 during Holy Week

Holy Week in Colombia is characterized by the number of events around Christianity that celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, in addition, families take advantage of it to get out of everyday life and go on a trip. A year ago, Covid-19 still had high levels of contagion in the country, as a result of the lack of respect for biosecurity measures that, as many know, consist of wearing masks, hand washing and social distancing, the third peak of contagion occurred and the highest levels of mortality in the country, reaching more than 600 deaths a day.

Due to the background and although it seems that the virus is already controlled in the country, the national authorities called on citizens to follow the minimums so that a scenario similar to that of 2021 does not occur. In this regard, the Ministry of Health stated that it is better for mass events to be held outdoors and if there is a symptom, however mild it may be, the isolation process is carried out immediately.

“If our destination is, or we intend to attend mass events, it is preferable that these are outdoors. If you have symptoms compatible with covid-19, isolate yourself preventively and avoid attending these mass events or public places. If you are going to participate in religious activities, during ceremonies you must maintain biosecurity measures,” suggested Ivan Cardenas, Deputy Director in Charge of Communicable Diseases at the Ministry of Health.

It is important to keep in mind that although some biosafety regulations have been modified, some such as: the use of masks indoors, hand washing, social distancing, prioritized events in high ventilation areas or outdoors, remain priorities. In addition, in some places it is still mandatory that people who want to attend must present their physical or digital vaccination card.

Meanwhile, vaccination is ongoing and a few days ago the Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz, announced that after 14 months the stage of the National Vaccination Plan will be finished, and immunizations of the population will continue through the Expanded Program on Immunization, PAI.

“We come from a model where we adopted the processes that came from the EPI, but we adopted next to an operational structure where nearly 84 million vaccines against covid-19 have been applied,” said the minister who points to the need to move to an institutionalized phase, where vaccination against coronavirus is integrated with regular immunization; He added: “We will send Minsalud teams with the Superintendency of Health to check how many were sent, how many are in the warehouses, how many were delivered to municipalities and are in the refrigerators, and how many are already in place. This will serve to validate the accounts, which is the second point, the verification of the counts.”

The announcement was made at the Unified Command Post, where he added that in the coming weeks a methodology will be deployed to make the accounts clear. In fact, large points of mass vaccination, for example, in shopping centers will be closed. It is expected to go from 1,170 vaccination posts, exclusively for covid-19, to 4,100 EPI vaccination points, arranged in clinics, hospitals and health departments throughout the country.

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