Colombia enters 5th wave of COVID-19 pandemic

The Minister of Health and Social Protection of Colombia, Fernando Ruiz, specified this Friday that the country is at a fifth peak of Covid-19 infections, for this reason he urged people to reinforce vaccination schemes.

“Obviously we are at the fifth peak. It has been spreading through different cities, especially in urban areas,” said the official, given an increase in the number of infections by Covid-19.

Regarding the most vulnerable groups, the minister indicated that people over 70 years of age represent an increase in virus infections, while there is a young population that has not yet been vaccinated.

“These two groups are more sensitive. Young people because an important group has not been vaccinated and in older adults, the issue of reinforcement is extremely important”, stressed the minister.

Ruiz asked that everyone work to motivate citizens to attend the vaccinations for the application of the doses, and stressed that it is important to speed up the taking of tests to identify new cases in time.

“At the present time, vaccination is decreasing, which is parallel to the increase in cases and deaths,” said the minister.

Ruiz appreciated that although the omicron variant is the dominant one in the country and represents less lethality in the nation, compared to other variants, it can also cause complications.

“This is the time for vaccination and for people to have a greater perception of risk and need to be vaccinated,” said the representative of the health entity.

“(About) 70 percent coverage in initial schemes and 40 percent in first booster doses that all the municipalities and departments of the country have, the director of Promotion and Prevention of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, Gerson Bermont Galavis, made it known that 523 municipalities have already reached the indicator, which represents 59.9 percent of the territory. In this sense, 40.1 percent of the country is missing, which means 448 municipalities with pending tasks”, he said.

Similarly, Bermont Galavis pointed out that there are already 42,574,535 people vaccinated, which represents 83.4 percent with the first or only dose; and 36,251,593, equivalent to 71 percent of people who have already completed their schemes.

The South American country registered 23,667 COVID-19 infections and 132 deaths in one week, bringing the total number to 6,198,848 cases and 140,202 deaths, according to the latest Health Ministry report.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES