Colombia / Travel Coronavirus Updates

[Surfer500]

The border is closed as of today. As of Tuesday all domestic flights are suspended until mid April. Even Colombian citizens are not allowed in, or out. We are North Korea now. Speaking of them, that might be a place with a lot of Coronavirus with all the back and forth with China.

My bet is the "hermit nation" is roiling with infections, and the way they are handling is most probably by doing nothing, in other words taking no extreme measures, treating it like the flu, no respirators, nobody in ICU's, just let everybody get it, except the Dictator, and avoid the financial impacts with less mouths to feed after whatever the percentage of the population has expired. Sound extreme, maybe not for that Country.

[TimeKeeper281]

Ebola was not an airborne virus and it did not get into any big cities.

What happened to Ebola? I remember it was highly infectious with a very low survival rate. I vaguely remember in 2014 a woman who was lambasted in the media when she was seen outside her house in Maine after possibly being exposed to the virus. Is because it started in Africa and was more isolated from the rest of the world? I'm trying to reconcile how something so deadly can be a distant memory but something with a single digit death rate and 80% recovery is causing the havoc it is causing. My political viewpoint tells me it's a case of something that affected mostly Africans doesn't matter to the rest of the world.

[YippieKayay]

The border is closed as of today. As of Tuesday all domestic flights are suspended until mid April. Even Colombian citizens are not allowed in, or out. We are North Korea now. Speaking of them, that might be a place with a lot of coronavirus with all the back and forth with China.

We were referring to the US border with Mexico and Canada.

[Knowledge]

The border is closed as of today. As of Tuesday all domestic flights are suspended until mid April. Even Colombian citizens are not allowed in, or out. We are North Korea now. Speaking of them, that might be a place with a lot of coronavirus with all the back and forth with China.

It's not closed. They're stopping non-essential traffic. No tourists are going to be allowed in. You can still travel for work, hence trucks are still going to get through.

[Knowledge]

Last week I was surprised to see long lines at clinics. I asked a girl in line what was up and she told me they were waiting to be tested for coronavirus. The people were not even 6 inches apart let alone six feet. The test results help track the virus for sure but me personally a positive or negative result isn't going to change me isolating myself. A home test would be more interesting to me. Switching gears to the lockdown, the police are enforcing it for the second night in a row with help from the weather. Both nights it started to rain hard as soon as the sun went down. I'm switching it up tonight, uber eats Indian food from Naan in Laureles. No dates scheduled until Tuesday, I need a break.

Sorry for responding to my own post. But have to say this. To my friends in Colombia, and there are many. If you have any health issues, including just being old (like me) take care of yourselves. Meaning. In my opinion only. Lock yourselves away in your apartment, hotel. The other day as I was leaving Bogota I saw some older person being helped down the street by two family members. On the way to a clinic or something. I don't know what it was. But this thing could be in the thousands already in the cities. Apparently the numbers that actually have it can be as much as 10 times as those actually getting diagnosed. Anyway. The chances of running into it are going up by 10 times every few days. Say every 10 days roughly. So take care.

[Knowledge]

Breaking news, all domestic flights are suspended through April 13.

So far the lockdown hasn't been very troublesome. It was very quiet around town today. I got a whatsapp from a Venezuelan I know from Botero Plaza that said Venezuelans don't feel they can be out of the house until Tuesday. I told her that it applies to everybody not just Venezuelans. It will be interesting to see how the next three weeks go. The mayor of Bogota got into a territorial spat with Duque today that was amusing. Several Duque supporters reminded her only the President has the authority to impose national lockdowns and national lockdowns supersede any local measures. She hinted at a less strict curfew for Bogota. The head of the national police made a statement in support of Duque.

Totally smart move on his part, maybe I should of stayed instead of leaving. Besides the bitching about Gusto's on the Medellin thread, it sounds like a field day for those either stuck in Medellin or there by choice, hopefully this measure, and others taken by the Colombian Government will help it to avoid the holocausts that have, and / or going to occur in other Countries, including the USA in various parts.

[Knowledge]

I saw lingering effects of the partying lifestsyle you mentioned.

Wow, that's hilarious. I used to party HARD in college with Greg. We didn't stay in touch after college but that guy was a fucking party animal. Fucking wild to see him here on this video.

[Knowledge]

What happened to Ebola? I remember it was highly infectious with a very low survival rate. I vaguely remember in 2014 a woman who was lambasted in the media when she was seen outside her house in Maine after possibly being exposed to the virus. Is because it started in Africa and was more isolated from the rest of the world? I'm trying to reconcile how something so deadly can be a distant memory but something with a single digit death rate and 80% recovery is causing the havoc it is causing. My political viewpoint tells me it's a case of something that affected mostly Africans doesn't matter to the rest of the world.

Those countries don't test as much. That's why you're seeing low numbers right now. The data isn't being collected. They are going to have an outbreak worse than other countries and when people start dropping the flies you'll see it in the news.

This isn't just one strain of the virus. We're going to see three or four waves over the next two years. A vaccine may help lower the spread but its highly infectious (R2. 2 which means everyone spreads it to two other people at least). Things are not going to be normal this year. Maybe sometime next year if enough herd immunity has built up. In the meantime western industrialized countries are trying to avoid a situation like the one in Italy, hence social distancing, to slow the spread.

[Knowledge]

I saw that, it made my jaw drop.

Reading the list of Exceptions to the Quarantine Order.

Personnel and vehicles that carry out the operation and logistics of the Medellin Lottery draw.

[Nounce]

A few countries thought of just riding it out, letting the thing run it's course. The UK actually said this early on. But now they've changed their mind.

That thinking probably is misinformed. The virus has more opportunities to mutate when there are more infections.

[Zeos1]

Take care of yourselves. Everyone. About all that can be said. Most countries / places are now locked down. No more travel in and out either already or very soon. So if you're in Colombia I wish you well. I got out last week. And I'm glad I was able to, but not saying that staying for an extended time would have been the end of the world. Just that everyone is now in survival mode. And rightly so.

A few countries thought of just riding it out, letting the thing run it's course. The UK actually said this early on. But now they've changed their mind. Canada took the opposite side relatively early on. So basically everything is shut down, everyone coming in or back is quarantined for 2 weeks, etc. Time will tell if it "flattens the curve". The lag time is at least 2 weeks between taking an action and starting to see any results.

The basic math seems to be about 10 times more every 10 days. So whatever the infection rate, deaths, whatever. In simple terms looks to be growing at that rate. Some countries have "flattened the curve", have it growing at a slower rate than that, and have the rate of increase slowing. China managed to mostly confine it to one province, and it is basically over in that province it appears. But no other country has the capability to do it the way they did.

The key "actions" are to stay out of coughing and sneezing range, and don't touch things and then your face. This one doesn't spread through air. It spreads only on droplets or on surfaces. So it's not that hard to avoid. Well, hard maybe, but not impossible. I would say do your own voluntary quarantine. And that means without visitors. Especially as time goes on.

Anyway. Take care everyone. Hope to get back sometime in a year or so. Might not be possible then, but we'll see.

[Nounce]

The sentence immediately before the two states comment is "I don't know the relevance of most deaths in China are in one region." But it's probably too much to ask you to comprehend two sentences that are together in the same paragraph.

Has it hit China yet? Their reported death toll is 15% of the estimated deaths in the US from the flu since October 2019.

Not saying anything is correct or wrong. Just an explanation of my earlier post

Most deaths in China are in one region.

The population of Hubei is less than 60 million. The population of China is more than 1. 3 billion. You are comparing a regional population that is much smaller than the entire US population.

Waiting for world class expert to comment further.

[Fun Luvr]

You're saying the DEATH RATE is not accurate because we don't know the total number of infections BUT you 100% trust the number of DEATHS that are recorded, do you even realize how idiotic that is?

Here is another glimpse into your absolute genius "A majority of the deaths in the US are in two states. ".
I hope your tiny brain can understand that this is not contained by state lines. What in the actual f* does that have to do with anything? The US is borderline about to have the highest daily growth rate of any country in the world, give it two days. Do you even know how to read a graph?

You are cherry picking in an attempt to verify your statements. I was responding to another poster's question of whether I was using the death rate or death count. I was explaining why I didn't use the death rate, and I never said nor implied that the death count was an accurate coronavirus death count. The 1.5% and 3.4% rates were used to show that the death rate was not very useful. That is the reason it was the next sentence after my comment about the usefulness of the death rate. 3.4% was the reported US death rate a few days ago, before testing was ramped up.

The sentence immediately before the two states comment is "I don't know the relevance of most deaths in China are in one region." But it's probably too much to ask you to comprehend two sentences that are together in the same paragraph.

[Mojo Bandit]

I am comparing total deaths because we don't really know the death rate. Unless everyone was tested, we would not know the number of cases. So the death rate we are seeing is pretty much useless. For the coronavirus, it is now at about 1.5% in the US, and earlier reports showed it at 3.4%.

I don't know the relevance of most deaths in China are in one region. A majority of the deaths in the US are in two states.

You are not just irredeemably stupid, you may actually be retarded. .

Can we please try to refrain from name calling and stick to attacking the idiotic information. Fun Luvr is vomiting out erroneous opinions in the face of world class expertise. But let's attack the information and refrain from the name calling.

[YippieKayay]

I hope your tiny brain can understand that this is not contained by state lines. What in the actual f* does that have to do with anything? The US is borderline about to have the highest daily growth rate of any country in the world, give it two days. Do you even know how to read a graph?

There is so much data on this, it is overwhelming. How we are still arguing about this is blowing my mind.

Yes, unfortunately the US may end up in the same place as Italy:

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2...t-overreacting

At least statistically speaking its moving down the same path. This is why governments are putting in all these measures. Or as the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada said, and I paraphrase: we don't want to just flatten the curve, we want to plank it.

What's shocking to me is that the UK only today had restaurants and bars close down. WTF. They took this long?