On March 6, 2020, covid-19 arrived in the country. A Colombian 19 years oldwho was returning from Italy, was the first case detected.
Secretaries of Health of the country, EPS, IPS, insurers and associations gathered around one objective: buy time before the imminent wave of infections.
(Read: This is the job outlook for women after the pandemic).
The announcement of the health emergency, on Thursday, March 12 of that year, paralyzed the 58.88 million Colombianswho stunned by the presidential speech, did not imagine that this situation of anxiety would last for two years.
The closure of borders and mandatory isolation were the first signs of fear.
Daily life, as it was known, changed forever, as recognized by the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz, who affirms that care, the use of the mask and prevention in the face of imminent risk, are here to stay. “We eliminated the restrictive use of the mask outdoors in vaccinated territories and citizens continue to use it”, he added, surprised by the change in behavior of the Colombian.
To date the covid-19 leaves in the country, 138,939 deaths, and 6,065,801 infections, being Bogotá and Antioquia, the most affected regions. The country faced one of its worst peaks in June last year, when daily deaths hit 679.
For the Minister of Health these painful situations, such as bereavementwhich suffered alterations due to the conditions of the pandemic, will leave consequences on the mental health of Colombians.
“The acute phase of the disease will leave us with mental health debts, especially due to the mourning that was not elaborated, due to the fact that the families simply could not bury their dead.”.
The acute phase of the disease will leave us with debts in mental health, especially due to duels that were not elaborated
SOCIAL IMPACTS
The teleworking and remote classes they became strategies to avoid contagion and keep the population at risk who would have contact with children and their families safe.
(What’s more: Daily death toll from covid in Colombia reached 40).
Thus, Colombia maintained its schools closed for 77 weeksaccording to the latest report from the International Monetary Fund, ranking 6th in the countries where the most classes were missed.
Regarding employment, after two years of pandemic, the National Administrative Department of Statistics indicated that for the last year of 2021, there is still a 3% lag, compared to the 8.99 million dependent contracts that were registered in the country by December 2019.
As a challenge, after overcoming the acute phase of the pandemic, the Minister of Health indicated that this sector must assume the consequences that this disease left on those who have recovered.
“With postcovid, we are going to be left with a significant number of people with cardiovascular and neurological problems that we are going to have to continue treating with the entire system. This will generate an additional burden of disease“, he pointed.
In turn, he argued that it is necessary for EPS and IPS to join efforts to comply with the psychological consequences that the pandemic left on Colombians.
Given this, Wilson Lopez, professor at the Faculty of Psychology at the Javeriana University, pointed out that the Government should invest more in preventive health to reduce the consequences of this fact.
He added that today’s children who lived through these two years of imprisonment and fears will surely have problems in their youth and the young in their adulthood and these in their old age.
VACCINATION
On February 18, 2021, a chapter of hope began in Colombia, after waiting for the first batches of vaccine, in Sincelejo. A citizen was the first to receive a dose of the Pfizer biological. This strategy has already completed a year since its implementation and has allowed the 40.2% of the country’s municipalities can stop wearing face masks. Thus, the vaccination plan has achieved a coverage of 81.4% in first doses, and 65.9% of the population already has the complete schedule. In addition, the reinforcements are already more than 8 million.
(Read: It is premature to say that the pandemic is over: WHO).
The Minister of Health pointed out that with vaccination and immunization due to contagion, a decrease in cases is expected, which could lead to endemicity.
“There is already a reduction, we are around 40 deaths daily, predictably we are going to have a few weeks with very low infections and deaths“, said.
In this sense, Epidemiologists such as Óscar Gómez de la Javeriana agree that a prevention approach should be followed in the face of possible strains.
JULIANA PEÑA
