Medellin + Antioquia news 414
Colombia Updates Covid-19 Vaccination Rollout Plan as Shot Rate Accelerates
Sunday, 09 May 2021 15:30 Written by Roberto Peckham
Colombia’s Health Ministry announced May 8 a new, updated Covid-19 vaccination plan on the heels of accelerating vaccination rates – now topping 200,000 daily, likely meaning that more than 10 million Colombians will have had at least one shot by the end of May 2021.
The plan adjustments “were made based on scientific evidence, which made it possible to identify new comorbidities in people with higher risk from the virus and other populations that, due to their exposure, have an increased risk of infection,” stated Health Ministry infectious-disease prevention director Gerson Bermont.
While virtually all of Colombia’s front-line health workers have long since been vaccinated under “Stage 1” of the national plan, the “next-in-line” health workers in the now-underway “Stage 2” include “all the human health workers in the EPS [health-provider networks], control bodies and different organizations that assist, accompany and validate the entire process of care and management of Covid,” Bermont said.
As for the “Stage 3” vaccinations starting this month, people with certain comorbidities (see below) will be included along with people between 50 and 59 years old. “Before now, this group was in Stage Five and now will go to Stage Three as a priority by age, taking into account that age continues to be the highest risk factor,” according to Bermont.
“Stage 4” now includes people aged 40 to 49 and all public-relief groups. Meanwhile, “Stage 5” will including people aged 16 to 39 years without comorbidities.
Here are all the updated categories, according to the Health Ministry:
Stage 2: Population between 60 and 79 years of age.
“Includes all health professionals in compulsory social service; resident physicians and their teachers within the framework of the teaching-service agreements and internal physicians of all health service providers of any level of complexity who carry out their activities in any of the services provided by health service providers and who do not are classified in stage 1.
“Also includes human talent in health and support that attends patients in health service providers, traditional doctors, ancestral physicians, private health agents and health students in clinical practice.
“Also includes human talent that supports the response to the pandemic, the National Vaccination Plan, the Expanded Plan for Immunization and Inspection, Surveillance and Control, plus human talent in health that cares for patients or visits providers in spaces other than the IPS, as well as human talent that works in blood, organ and tissue banks.”
Stage 3: “Population between 50 and 59 years old, as well as population between 16 and 59 years old, presenting at least one of the following conditions: Hypertensive diseases; acute ischemic heart disease; heart failure; cardiac arrhythmias; cerebrovascular disease; diabetes; renal insufficiency; HIV; cancer; tuberculosis; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; asthma; Obesity Grade 1, 2 and 3 (Body Mass Index> 30); those on the waiting list for transplantation of vital organs; post transplant of vital organs; neurological disorders; Down's Syndrome; primary immunodeficiency; schizophrenia, schizotypal disorder, and delusional disorders; autism; bipolar disorder; intellectual disability and other mental disorders due to brain injury or dysfunction or somatic disease; cystic fibrosis.
“Also includes educational agents, community mothers and fathers linked to early childhood services, identified by [child-welfare agency] ICBF; teachers, educational directors, logistical and administrative support personnel of initial education, preschool, basic primary, basic secondary, secondary education and higher education establishments; caregivers of populations of special protection; public force; indigenous guard and maroon guard; human talent from funeral homes, crematoriums and cemeteries that handle corpses; Search Unit Personnel; Colombian Migration Personnel; highest national, municipal, district and departmental Police and Health authorites; personnel of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation.
Stage 4: “People in prisons; personnel who, due to their functions, are in direct contact with prisoners; first responders in risk management; street dwellers; human talent that works in social services for the attention of the homeless population; active international flight attendants and pilots and crew of international cargo ships; high risk aeronautical personnel; human talent of the Family Protective Service Stations in charge of the care and protection of victims of domestic violence; UNGRD emergency and disaster field care human talent staff; and people aged 40 to 49 years.
Stage 5: “People aged 16 years and over not found in the populations indicated in stages 1, 2, 3 and 4. Priority in this group includes adults between 30 and 39 years of age, then young people and adolescents.”
Update: Antioquia, Medellin Ease Covid Restrictions for May 10-May 17; Medellin-Bogota Highway Now Unblocked
Sunday, 09 May 2021 14:12 Written by Roberto Peckham
Antioquia Acting Governor Luis Fernando Suárez announced May 9 that starting Monday, May 10 through Monday, May 17, a 10-pm to 5-am daily curfew and booze-sales ban will replace the stricter Covid-19 curfew/quarantine standards of the past three weeks.
“Pico y cedula” shopping restrictions will switch to odd/even-numbered days tied to cedulas ending in odd or even numbers. Hence people with cedulas ending in odd numbers can start shopping on Tuesday, May 11, while even-number-ending cedulas qualify for shopping on Wednesday, May 12. Restaurants and hotels are exempt from pico-y cedula.
Because of a delay in getting final approval from Colombia’s Interior Minister for the new shopping and travel restrictions, the prior regulation enabling shopping for cedulas ending in 2 and 3 continues for Monday, May 10.
A significant decrease in new Covid cases, a lower positivity rate in Covid-19-infection tests, a decline in existing Covid cases and a decrease in waiting times for intensive care unit (ICU) beds collectively explain the easing of restrictions for the coming week, he added.
“The indicators show fewer cases and less positivity in tests, but it is not the [hoped-for] expected decrease,” Suárez cautioned during a televised press conference today.
“This rate of recovery is not enough to relieve pressure on the health system. We understand the exhaustion of commerce, of people, but we cannot lower our guard,” hence face-mask mandates, social distancing and strict workplace/public-space health-protocol regulations will continue, he said.
Thankfully, Antioquia also just cleared the Medellin-Bogota highway this morning (May 9) of groups of “protestors” supposedly protesting a recent tax-reform proposal. As a result, crucial oxygen supplies for hospitals, medicines for Covid-19 patients, food and fuel supplies can once again reach all of the Medellin metro area.
Fortunately, Antioquia has largely escaped the violence of other parts of Colombia during the last two weeks of public protests -- supposedly sparked by a tentative tax-reform proposal, but in reality sparked by unemployed people, certain left-wing labor unions, some left-wing students and just too many people fed-up with 15-months of economic and social suffering along with suffocating mobility restrictions, all caused by the Covid-19 pandemic rather than by the Colombian government.
These mainly peaceful protests also have been infiltrated by violent narco-communist terrorist actors including ELN and re-FARC -- along with agents from the narco-communist dictatorship of neighboring Venezuela, which sent agent-provocateurs dressed in fake Colombian police uniforms to cause havoc, as has been publicly documented by official video cameras of captured terrorist agents.
Scores of private buildings, stores, police stations, bus stations, public transit buses, ambulances and police vehicles have been torched by these terrorists -- and in addition some terrorists tried to burn alive policemen trapped inside one police station, as has been officially documented.
More than 600 police so far have been injured by violent protestors who have been shooting bullets, rocks, bombs and Molotov cocktails, while more than a dozen other people – allegedly including some “innocent protestors” – have died in obscure circumstances during the protests, according to Colombia’s Attorney General.
Antioquia’s ‘IDEA” Development Bank Inks Alliance with Animal Bank
Friday, 23 April 2021 14:30 Written by Roberto Peckham
The Antioquia departmental government’s Institute for the Development of Antioquia (IDEA) announced April 22 that it just signed an alliance deal with Medellin-based “green” project consultant Animal Bank.
Animal Bank is an initiative created by Medellin’s Portafolio Verde organization (see Medellin Herald 08/26/2019), which helps various commercial or industrial project developers to find novel ways to offset, avoid or minimize environmental impacts.
“IDEA will be a founding ally of Animal Bank, becoming the first public entity to support this initiative,” according to the agency. “The alliance will support the design, structuring and development of projects focused on the conservation of biodiversity.”
Animal Bank allies also include Renting Colombia (subsidiary of Bancolombia), Continental Gold, the Humboldt Institute of Colombia, Vanderbilt University and B Lab. Its board of directors includes environmental sustainability expert Brigitte Baptiste, rector of EAN University.
According to Portafolio Verde executive director Alejandro Zapata Arango, “through the management of partner organizations, the Animal Bank establishes sources of operation and financing that allow it to advance in the fulfillment of its purpose. Along this route, we have identified the importance of having the support of a public-sector company such as IDEA, an entity that shares the principles and meaning of [environmentally conscious] banking and that acts from a commitment to the development of society.”
The alliance between IDEA and Animal Bank “will contribute to the future of the territories and the next generations by creating social awareness with actions aimed at the efficient use of natural resources and carrying out collective work for the conservation of biodiversity,” according to the organization.
Colombia Covid-19 Vaccinations Approach 5 Million; Antioquia Coverage Tops 10%
Thursday, 22 April 2021 10:39 Written by Roberto Peckham
Colombia President Ivan Duque announced April 21 that while 4 million Colombians have already received at least one shot of Covid-19 vaccine, that number will have topped 5 million by May 4, thanks to accelerating vaccination rates.
Meanwhile, Antioquia Acting Governor Luis Fernando Suarez revealed April 21 that 600,000 people in Antioquia (including metro Medellin) – 10% of its total population – have already gotten at least one shot, as 74% of the 703,000 doses provided to Antioquia through the national government’s “MiVacuna” program have been applied into arms.
Nationally, Colombia now has more than 40,000 trained and certified Covid vaccinators, with another 20,000 undergoing final training, President Duque added.
As a result, Colombia is on-track to boost vaccination capacity to 200,000 people daily, hence enabling the nation to meet its target of getting 35 million of the most-vulnerable Colombians (70% of the total population) vaccinated before year-end 2021, he said.
On the supply front, Pfizer just delivered another 550,000 doses of its vaccine to Colombia, while Sinovac will have delivered another 2 million of its vaccines by early May, he said.
In total, Colombia already has bought 67 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, including 20 million through the “Covax” multinational consortium.
By pharmaceutical provider, Pfizer is providing 10 million doses (covering 5 million Colombians); AstraZeneca is providing 10 million doses (for 5 million people); Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) will deliver 9 million doses (covering 9 million people); Sinovac is providing 7.5 million doses (for 3.7 million people) and Moderna is providing 10 million doses for 5 million people, according to Colombia’s Health Ministry.
According to the Health Ministry, as of April 20, 896,839 Colombians 80 years and older had gotten at least one Covid shot (80% of that cohort), while 75% of front-line health workers (totaling 708,350 persons) likewise had gotten a shot.
One-third of Colombians 70 to 79 years old meanwhile have gotten at least one shot, while 89,360 persons 65 to 69 years old have gotten a shot to date, according to the Ministry.
In May, the national vaccination campaign extends to persons 18 to 59 years old -- if they suffer medical co-morbidities, including those with cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, as well as those with cancer, AIDs and other diseases, according to the Ministry.
Medellin-Bogota Highway Reopens 24 Hours/Day at San Luis Landslide Site
Sunday, 18 April 2021 11:27 Written by Roberto Peckham
Colombia’s national highway agency Invias announced April 17 that it has restored 24 hours/day operations on the Medellin-Bogota highway at the site of an April 9 landslide near San Luis, Antioquia.
The new scheme employs alternating one-way traffic around the landslide site between kilometer 31 and kilometer 61 on the Medellín-Bogotá highway.
“Thanks to the work that our engineers and operators have been doing for seven continuous days, today we enable controlled passage via one-lane, 24 hours a day, for all types of vehicles through this important corridor,” said Invias operations director Juan Esteban Romero Toro.
Continuing updates on restoration progress are available via the Invias toll-free hotline (#767) as well as on Twitter (@inviasoficial) and Facebook (Inviasoficial) or on the website www.invias.gov.co, the agency added.
