World Through COVID-19, Colombia
One of my favorite things about traveling is meeting new people and luckily, I’ve met so many remarkable people through my travels. Over the coming weeks and months, I’ll be talking to friends across the globe to see how this pandemic has affected their country and community. Hopefully by doing this, people from all over can learn from what other countries and communities are doing to avoid the spread of this virus and put in perspective what is truly going on beyond their neighborhood.
This week, I got to chat with Laura Gomez Moreno who lives in Colombia. Laura and I met 6 years ago through graduate school and have been on many trips since then, including our most recent trip to Cuba less than a month ago.
Laura was in Paris when COVID-19 hit France. She was quarantined during her visit and had quite the difficult time getting home. She arrived in Colombia on the 18th, only one day before Colombia closed their borders on the 19th.
When I talked to Laura on Monday 3/30 there were less than 800 cases and 15 deaths. Today, only two days later, the number has grown to 1,065 cases and 17 deaths. Colombia is taking drastic measurements early on since they don’t have the best healthcare infrastructure.
Colombia as it stands today:
- No one is allowed to take walks except, only to store, doctor, bank or are a caretaker (with a note from employer)
- Must request permission from government if you want to relocate your quarantine (Laura requested to quarantine with her father, and to access internet and it was declined)
- If you’ve traveled, you must quarantine alone for 14 days (Laura went straight from the airport to her family’s avocado farm and has been there by herself since)
- Training all doctors for COVID-19 patients. Laura’s friend who is a pediatrician is currently being trained on how to intubate people.
- Securing hospital spaces exclusive for COVID-19 patients.
- Elderly aren’t allowed to leave their house until May 31st.
- From March 24 – April 13th, if you leave your house for a non-essential reason, you will get a ticket and, in some cases, may even go to jail.
- Testing kits are being sent from China without much regulation, so they shouldn’t have a shortage.
Community measures:
- At grocery stores, you can purchase a pre-packaged bag for a family in need.
- Colombian artists, like Carlos Vives, are doing virtual concerts from their homes.
- TV ratings are going up since not everyone has internet in Colombia.
- Currently, internet providers are nearly impossible to get a hold of.
Economy:
- So far, the government hasn’t taken any extreme measures to help.
- All retailers and companies belong to an association called ANDI. ANDI is lobbying to get econimic rescue packages from the government to avoid permanent closure and bankruptcy for these companies.
- COVID-19 is mostly affecting the middle-class (such as taxi drivers) since many of them won’t be getting their regular salary since there’s not much work for them and they do not qualify for government assistance.
- A lot of the low-class salaries are continued to be paid (such a house cleaners) even without servicing. Low income citizens are also getting some help from the government.
- Colombians live paycheck to paycheck. Having a savings account isn’t common.
- For low-income citizens, utility bills will be frozen for the next 3 months so they will have power, electricity and gas. They will still have to pay their bill after 3 months, but will not be penalized nor will they have any interest. Mid to high-income citizens will have to pay for utilities. This is what is hurting the middle class citizens. They are struggling since they aren’t getting their expected salaries but are expected to pay all their bills.
The US started taking measurements long before Colombia did but as it stands today, Colombia has more strict measurements in place than the US. Hopefully this will succumb the spread of the COVID-19.
Huge thanks to Laura for being my first guest on this new content series!