Mayor Claudia López announced Wednesday more restrictive measures for Bogotá during the quarantine that was extended by President Iván Duque until 11:59 pm, Monday, April 27.
In a virtual press conference, the Mayor has restricted pedestrian and vehicular mobility in the entire city based on gender. Men will be able to do essential errands on all days ending with an ODD number, and women, on all days with an EVEN number.
Transgender persons must decide the day they want to circulate based on their sexual orientation.
The heightened mobility restriction “Pico y Genero” goes into effect Monday, April 13.
Individuals who break the rule face a $1 million peso fine.
Five groups are exempt from the gender-based restriction: public service workers, healthcare providers, food suppliers and distributors, essential staffers in banks and supermarkets, all security personnel.
As part of Mayor López’s #CuarentenaPorLaVida – QuarantineForLife – 80% of planned investment in public works will be postponed until 2021 to allocate funds to help vulnerable populations affected by quarantine. López also announced that on Saturday, the first 200 beds for non-critical COVID-19 patients will be operational inside the city’s largest trade and exhibition center Corferias. The aim is to have 5,000 beds ready and “convert Corferias into the largest public hospital in the Americas,” said Mayor López.
Given that Bogotá counts with 345 “UCI” intensive care units in 26 hospitals, Mayor López confirmed that 48 patients are currently being treated as high-risk cases and represent 14% of the city’s total ICU capacity. Of the city’s total 779 coronavirus cases, 631 are recovering at home and 126 in hospital.
There are very few positive aspects to report on during the coronavirus pandemic, even from Colombia, where cases continue to climb day-on-day and country where 50 hospitalized patients have died, according to the National Institute of Health. Even in Bogotá, the hardest-hit urban center in the country, the numbers of infected are rising, despite a lockdown that after April 28 will continue to restrict everyday life.
But the one side-effect in a city where traffic has dissipated from congested streets is air quality, which just days before the obligatory quarantine was at hazardous levels forcing the mayoralty of Claudia López to declare a “yellow alert.” The “yellow alert” was lifted on April 3 after the capital showed an 81% improvement in air quality.
With the city’s articulated mass transit system TransMilenio operating with less than 400,000 passengers compared with 2.2 million daily users before the quarantine was enforced on March 20, the closing of all businesses, except those considered essential – pharmacies, petrol stations and supermarkets – has also cleaned the air of noise pollution, allowing Bogotanos to wake-up to the chirping of birds instead of car horns.
The lowering of the PM2.5 index at monitoring stations across the city from highs between 50 and 100, to current levels in the 30s and lower, even in smog blanketed industrial zones, is giving residents a chance to appreciate stunning views of the city, especially at sunrise where the snow-capped peaks of volcanos Nevado del Ruíz and Nevado del Tolima are reappearing – in all their grandeur – on the horizon. With stay-at-home orders, the daily commute has been replaced with sunset watching.
