BOGOTA (Reuters) – Confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Colombia exceeded 80,000 on Friday with nearly complete extended care sets in major cities, where crowds have been piling up for weeks of protests against the government.
The government warned this week that protests, first of all a call to opposition to now-cancelled but expanded tax reform to combat inequality and police brutality, deserve to prolong the already devastating third wave of the epidemic.
The mayor of Bogota echoed the warning and said the capital on Thursday reported its second number of new cases of COVID-19 and the number of deaths since the start of the pandemic.
“I don’t know what else to say, warn, beg, beg,” Claudia Lopez said in a Twitter message Thursday night that suggested others adpethered social esttachment regulations.
On Friday he announced that he was inflamed and that he would isolate himself.
Protesters have marched through Colombia since April 28, when deaths across the country reached a record 505. The average death toll was around 470 a day and on Friday the cumulative death toll reached 80,250.
Global chart-COVID-19: https://tmsnrt. rs/2FThSv7.
Tension in the capital’s ICU “is worrisome,” the government said Thursday night, adding that patients would be transferred to cities.
The rate of extensive care occupancy for patients with COVID-19 in Bogota is 94%, according to the authorities, while in Medellin and Cali the rates are 99% and 95% respectively.
Health experts say they respect people’s right to protest, but warn that giant teams continue to unern.
“We can’t go on like this,” Andrea Ramirez, epidemiologist at the University of the Andes de Bopassta, told Reuters.
“Now we’re talking about an almost life-or-death scenario, because right now, if other people are in poor health and want an extensive care unit, they might not find one. “
(Reporting through Oliver Griffin and Herbert Villarraga in Bogota, edited through John Stonestreet and Matthew Lewis)