Bogotá, December 4, 2020. After the announcement by the National Government of the unfeasibility of complying with a Bogotá judge ruling ordering the requirement of PCR test certificate and 14-day isolation of people who enter the country, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz, confirmed that this measure will not be implemented.
"It puts us in a very difficult position because it somehow superimposes individual rights over collective rights, which is what prevails in a condition like the one we are experiencing in a pandemic. That would mean that we would quarantine more than 120,000 people in December, of which 80,000 would have tested negative. While the Ministry of Health does not change the norm and impose the PCR test, people will be able to continue traveling," he said.
The head of the health ministry noted that the Executive branch has been respectful of judges' rulings and Constitutional Court requests, but this situation involves an impossibility of compliance given the characteristics of the ruling and the interference on the pandemic management policy and strategy.
He was emphatic in saying that "at this moment we are within the legal terms and we will proceed within those terms. For the time being, and while we do not issue orders to change the situation and force PCR testing, the situation will continue the same."
The minister added that the ruling goes against all the evidence, recommendations and epidemiological suggestions of the Pan American Health Organization. Imposing the PCR test encroaches into the response capacity of the health authority and of the Ministry of Health in the face of a pandemic.
It is estimated that only 0.03% of the cases registered in Colombia are a result of contagion by the traveling population from abroad. Ruiz explained that if the country were in a containment phase, with a lower reproduction rate and number of infections than other countries with which it has constant interconnection, it would make sense to close the borders or require diagnostic tests.
And based on the above, he noted that "to the extent that the country's level of infection has equaled that of other countries, this test is unnecessary. This would then also apply to domestic flights and land transportation. That is the complexity of this ruling and its application."
