Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


'You Begin to Feel Hopeless:' Colombia Struggles to Get Past Never-ending
Quarantines

Megan Janetsky

   MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA - When Juan José Hincapié opened his small pizza
   restaurant on his street corner, the 46-year-old achieved his lifelong
   dream.

   But after five months of quarantine in Colombia, his dream, like those
   of many people in this nation still recovering from decades of civil
   war and cartel violence, is in danger of evaporating.

   The country is beginning to emerge from one of the world's longest
   coronavirus quarantines, which has had devastating effects in regard to
   poverty, mental health, violence, the economy and small businesses like
   Hincapié's.

   Now, health experts warn it will have to strike a careful balancing to
   not spiral out of control.

   Two months ago, Hincapié made a snap decision to transform his
   restaurant in MedellÃn, Colombia's second-largest city, into a fruit
   and vegetable stand. He replaced heavy stoves and tables with plastic
   bins holding piles of tomatoes, pineapples, potatoes, avocados and
   other produce.

   "If we didn't make that change, we would have had to close because our
   sales dropped 80% -- even more," he said. "We couldn't sustain our
   staff with that."

   He watched as neighborhood shops around him shuttered for good, "for
   rent" signs began to pop up, and a growing number of people walked the
   streets begging for money from apartments looming above.

   Unemployment has surged and Colombia's economy [1]contracted nearly 17%
   in Maycompared with the same month in 2019. Meanwhile in June,'¯the
   World Bank said Latin America would lose 20 years of progress in
   poverty reduction because of the pandemic.

   Cases still rising

   Despite the lockdown, cases in the South American country continue to
   soar.

   Colombia now has one of the highest infection rates in the world. As of
   September 3, the country has reported more than 633,321 confirmed cases
   and 20,345 deaths.

   Luis Jorge Hernández, a public health researcher, sees the rising
   numbers as a sign that the quarantines have started to do more harm
   than good.

   "We can't continue with more lockdown, we have to work on mitigation,
   using face masks, washing hands and social distancing," Hernández
   said. "It was effective in the beginning, but now it's not effective."

   Colombian President Ivan Duque announced the national quarantine in
   late March, and for the first weeks, even months, that lockdown
   appeared to be effective. As cases in other Latin American countries
   like Mexico and Brazil soared, the infection rate in Colombia stayed
   comparatively low.

References

   1. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-economy/colombias-economy-contracted-16-65-in-may-as-virus-lockdown-continues-idUSKCN24I2CK

.