“Surely in a few weeks we will be saying: 'no more masks in closed spaces”: Minister of Health

This Friday, April 22, the Minister of Health of Colombia, Fernando Ruiz, announced that in the coming weeks, together with the Advisory Committee, the behavior of the pandemic in the national territory will be evaluated, in order to analyze whether the measure for the use of masks in closed spaces will be lifted.

The head of the Health portfolio, who highlighted in an interview with the newspaper El Tiempo that a steady level of covid-19 is being achieved, clarified that the use of masks not only prevents the spread of covid-19 but also respiratory diseases, which is why it would seek to overcome the months in which epidemiological peaks occur in other diseases to assess the lifting of this measure.

“During the months of April and May we have the epidemiological peak of other respiratory diseases. For the past two years we have been protected thanks to the use of the mask. It may be reasonable to keep wearing masks indoors and when you have respiratory symptoms to protect children, because every year we have a significant number of deaths. The mask is here to stay,” said Minister Ruiz in his talk with the national media.

He indicated that in the coming weeks it is possible that “no more masks in closed spaces” will be announced, but he called for citizens to continue to maintain the habit of having masks in homes, and that if any member of the family has any respiratory symptoms or a colleague from the office, they return to use its use that has proven effective against covid-19 and other diseases.

On the other hand, the head of the portfolio stated in his interview with the newspaper El Tiempo that it is currently recorded that 83% of the population in the country has the first dose against covid-19, and that 69.2% completed their vaccination schedule, also, he noted that 34.7% of citizens applied the booster dose, which would show a significant advance in the National Vaccination Plan, which has achieved the recent figures against the pandemic.

“We have made progress in dealing with covid-19, but so far we are starting a stationary level. We must have at least 42 days of stability of low numbers, to begin to say that we are approaching a more endemic behavior of the pandemic. Colombia has taken decisions based on scientific evidence, accompanied by the expert committee, which has allowed us to see a positive behavior of the pandemic, different from that of many other countries, allowing the country's economic reactivation”, concluded Minister Ruiz in the interview with the newspaper.

On February 23, President Iván Duque announced that municipalities in the country with more than 70% of double-dose vaccination against covid-19 could lift the mandatory use of masks in open spaces.

“We are already above 81% of Colombians who have a dose, we are already over the 65% that have the complete scheme and we have eight million people who have already been immunized with the booster dose,” said the head of state at that time.

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