​03/07/2020

Press Release No. 051, 2020

-President Duque announced that it will be available, free of charge, starting tomorrow.

-Next week the migration protocols in border areas will be reinforced.

-Colombia has the endorsement of the World Health Organization.

Bogotá, March 7, 2020. This Saturday, a new meeting of the Unified Command Post was held with the purpose of addressing the containment phase of COVID-19 with all the authorities of the country, headed by President Iván Duque and the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz.

The meetings took place with the National Council of Associations and mobile phone operators in the country, to convey the measures that have been initially taken by the National Government in the preparedness and prevention phase and now in the containment phase.

"The idea is to involve the productive sectors of the country in all the campaigns promoting the recommendations that we want Colombians to adopt, and for them to learn about the protocols that are available," said the president.

One of the important announcements made by President Duque was that starting tomorrow a free download application called CoronApp - Colombia (enabled for iOS and Android devices) will be available, which will be disseminated through text messages by the operators, and their download will not affect users' data plan. (This is the download link: http://url.ins.gov.co/0vh1s)

"This will allow Colombians to have information in the palm of their hand regarding last minute issues and preventive measures," said the president.

Procedures

President Iván Duque maintained that with the Ministry of Health and the National Health Institute, the procedures and verification of migratory access points at airports have been reviewed and strengthened.

"Today, we monitored that the migratory access points are effectively closed, with iris or fingerprints, so as to ensure that all entries are made with a migration officer," he said.

The preparedness matrix was evaluated in the different provinces where additional protocols have also been activated, and with the support of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation. A notification will be sent to all territorial entities so that the tools that correspond to the containment of the disease are available.

President Duque put the spotlight on the fact that the resources of the national budget have been arranged so that the country has updated laboratories in the territories that have focal points. "Contacts with EPS and IPS networks in the country will continue, in addition to launching an exclusive national telephone line to answer citizens' calls," he said.

The protocols for the hotel and entertainment sector and other areas were also discussed with the private sector, all under the premise of keeping calm, not affecting the country's economic activity and taking the measures corresponding to the containment phase.

The president reiterated that prevention begins with self-care that ranges from constant hand washing to the correct use of face masks. "People must access a unified information source, which is the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, to ensure reliable news," he said.

Working at the borders

The Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz, remarked that next week, work will be done on reinforcing borders. "We will be proposing specific efforts to evaluate migration protocols, service chains and structures, as well as the monitoring of the different guidelines in areas where we need to focus actions such as Riohacha, Cúcuta, the border with Ecuador and San Andrés."

This process, he said, depends on the State, but also on the population. "We must educate so that at this time we succeed in having actions such as hand washing, but also social distance so that there is less contact among people and therefore less possibility of contagion," he added.

For her part, the WHO/PAHO representative in Colombia, Gina Tambini, guaranteed the support and endorsement of the actions performed by Colombia in the prevention phase and now in the containment of COVID-19. "We are providing all the protocols and guidelines of the experts to ensure that they are implemented in the country," she said.