Colombian Govt’s approval rating at 74.7% with COVID-19 as cases rise to 3439

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Durante la Emergencia Sanitaria se apropiaron 6 billones de pesos y se expidieron 72 decretos que permiten atender la situación por la pandemia del coronavirus, destacó este jueves el Presidente Iván Duque Márquez, en el programa 'Prevención y Acción'.

The Colombian government’s approval ratings with President Iván Duque’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic climbed from 45.9% on March 20, to 74.7% on April 17, according to the latest survey by pollsters Datexco.

The poll conducted nationwide for La W radio also reveals that 91.8% of the public are strictly adhering to obligatory preventive isolation, while 6.8% claim for the most part (“medianamente”) and 1.5% admit not at all.

The poll dubbed Opinometro asked households if a family member or close friend has been diagnosed with COVID-19, of which 96% responded in the negative.

The poll also reveals that 55.9% of Colombians have felt depressed or sad with the almost month-long quarantine.

The economic impact of quarantine also shows that 55.1% of those polled have lost a job during the last month and an increase from 30.1% on March 20.

On Friday, Amnesty International issued a “high alert” to the Colombian government that it must “adopt additional social protection measures for those parts of the population that are in a particularly vulnerable situation and are more likely to contract COVID-19.”

In AI’s statement, Colombia’s many indigenous communities are highly exposed to the spread of coronavirus given lack of access to health, water and food. “If authorities do not take urgent action, indigenous peoples will find themselves facing two unthinkable paths: starve or die of the pandemic,” writes Amnesty International’s Deputy Americas Director Fernanda Doz Costa.

The alert comes as the government dispatched to Leticia the Presidential plane with much needed medical supplies for healthcare workers as the departmental capital confirmed its first case of coronavirus on Friday.

The Amazonian and Orinoco departments of Guaviare, Putumayo, Vichada, Vaupés  have not reported cases of the respiratory disease according to data from the Ministry of Health.

Since the outbreak of the virus on March 6, indigenous communities began closing-off their ancestral territories to outsiders, barricading roads and protected by representatives of the Indigenous Guard. The country’s most affected indigenous peoples are those living in the southern department of Nariño, close to the border with Ecuador, where COVID-19 cases in the neighboring country have reached 8,450 and death toll of 421. The province of Guayas accounts for more than 50% of all the deaths from coronavirus.

On Friday, the number of new coronavirus cases in the country increased 206 from 3233 to 3439, according to the Ministry of Health with 9 additional deaths putting the new total of fatalities at 153. According to daily bulletin of the National Institute of Health, 3488 COVID-19 tests were processed confirming 206 infected patients, 62 new cases of which are in Bogotá, 46 in Valle del Cauca, 39 in Risaralda, 16 in Antioquia, 11 in Cundinamarca, 5 in Cartagena, 5 in Chocó, among others.

Of the nine victims, one death was confirmed in Bogotá of a 62-year old man diagnosed with chronic pulmonary obstruction, while other fatalities occurred in Jamundí, Cartagena, Palmira, Cali and Santa Marta.

The mayoralty of Bogotá confirmed receiving a shipment of 100,000 additional tests  to boost the capital’s capacity to respond to the spread of the disease.

In the INS bulletin, 634 coronavirus cases have recovered from the illness.

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