“The idea in the medium term is to go a bit of trial and error in the sense that the possibility of a new quarantine is not ruled out,” says Colombian analyst Mauricio Reina.
The Colombian case could be a good roadmap for the reactivation of the national market. On Monday, April 27, the Iván Duque government ordered the return to economic and productive activity gradually and under the biosafety protocols established by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.
Colombian economist and analyst Mauricio Reina, explains to CARETAS that “it started with construction and eight sectors of the manufacturing industry. It will be gradual since companies are required to be registered in databases and to have validated security protocols from a public health point of view. We are now in that process in which some cities have fewer complications and construction work has started again. ”
The situation in Bogotá is different. Due to its high population density and the concentration of most of the infections, the sectors were not fully reactivated since the local government is in “the slow process of identifying adequate protocols”. “The idea in the medium term is to go a little bit of trial and error in the sense that the possibility of a new quarantine is not ruled out and will depend on how the contagion curve behaves and the occupation of Intensive Care Units (ICU)” Reina adds.
The Colombian labor force amounts to 22 million employed people. Of these, four million belong to the construction and industry sector; half are informal or independent, they will not be able to link up quickly because they have no way to verify the protocols. Given this, mayors have two indicators to follow, the capacity of public transport to guarantee the necessary distance and the use of the ICU
