Colombia will stop requiring masks in open spaces

The Colombian government will stop requiring masks in the open spaces of cities with better vaccination indicators against covid-19, when the explosion of covid infections caused by the omicron variant subsides.

“In those places where we already have double-dose vaccination of more than 70%, we are going to lift the use of face masks in open spaces,” President Iván Duque told the media on Wednesday.

The local governments of Bogotá and Medellín (northwest), where 10.5 of the 50 million Colombians live, accepted the measure, which does not alter the mandatory nature of the mask in public transport, restaurants and other closed spaces.

Another 450 municipalities will also be able to lift this restriction due to their progress in immunisation against covid, detailed by the Ministry of Health.

At the national level, "we are already above 81% (of the population) with one dose, we have already exceeded 65% with a double dose and we are already exceeding 8 million people with a booster dose," said Duque.

However, Cali, the third city in the country with 1.2 million inhabitants, will not be able to make the use of face masks more flexible since only 67% of its population has received some dose of the anticovid vaccine.

The national government had already lifted in 2021 the restrictions on mobility and capacity at public events associated with the pandemic.

Colombia detected the first case of covid in March 2020 and 138,000 people have died from the virus since then in the South American country.

In proportion to its population, it is the fourth country most affected by the pandemic in the region, behind Peru, Brazil and Argentina.