Bogotá DC, July 30, 2020. The Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz, in relation to the challenges facing covid-19, the care of people and medicine home delivery explained that "Colombia, despite the challenges, has improved in medicine home delivery 8 times in the last two months, and it has increased its in-home care consultation capacity 10 times."

"The call is for people to comply with the protocols issued by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection and to access in-home consultation and medicine delivery. This is also a call to the Health Promotion Organizations (EPSs) for harmonious action with the community," he said.

In relation to the issue of 'peak and ID' for the delivery of medicines, the Ministry of Health said that these are being implemented with the municipality and the EPSs, "the intention is to have a more rational arrival of patient at clinics and hospitals; but when care is inadequate, users can file their complaints with the National Health Superintendency, which has been acting very diligently."

Tests

"Working together with public and private entities and academia, it was possible to go from 1 to 97 laboratories throughout the country, and from running 600 tests to 35,000 tests per day. This demonstrates Colombia's expanded capacity," Ruiz pointed out.

The minister invited the different sectors and the community in general to abide by the protocols and to rationalize the tests, "what we are asking the Health Care Providers (IPSs)–and everybody–is to comply with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to rationalize testing. People do not need to have several tests; the important thing is isolation to stop the chain of transmission and to report the symptoms to the EPSs."

Oximeter

He also explained the publication of a care model that requires all EPSs nationwide to deliver this pulse oximeter in order to reduce the severity of the damage in the Intensive Care Units (ICU) and the invitation is to extend it to Nacional level.

And as for antigen tests, he maintained that together with PSR tests "it will allow us to run 50,000 tests a day. Antigens have the same diagnostic capacity as PCR tests, and they have already been validated by the National Institute of Health. The next step is for the territorial entities and the EPSs to acquire these tests that are much faster to administer, and the report is ready in a few hours."