State directs actions to prevent contagion of COVID-19 in ethnic groups

The following is the statement from the ministries of health and social protection and the interior to prevent the arrival of the coronavirus or Covid19 to Colombian ethnic groups:

03/25/2020Press Release No 093 of 2020

- Departmental, district and municipal authorities must share the recommendations.

Bogotá, March 25, 2020. With the purpose of providing recommendations for the prevention, containment and mitigation of the COVID-19 coronavirus in ethnic groups, the Ministries of Health and Social Protection and the Interior issued Circular 015 of 2020.

The measures are aimed at Indigenous Peoples, Black Communities, Afro-Colombians, Raizales, Palenqueras and the Rrom People, taking into account that they are populations that require greater protection due to the vulnerability caused by being exposed to a greater extent to the social determinants of health.

With this Circular, the National Government adopts measures against the health risk generated by the coronavirus and recommends that the different ethnic groups adopt the specific measures presented taking into account their socio-cultural characteristics:

• Remain in your territory, within your individual or collective space, in order to reduce exposure to the risk of contagion.

• Implement actions to avoid leaving their territories in order to reduce exposure to the risk of contagion.

• Limiting the entry of people from outside the communities, such as tourists, visitors from private institutions, delegates from NGOs or international cooperation, who develop processes or activities in ethnic territories saved a case of extreme need from occurring.

• Establish protocols in order to guarantee that people outside the communities who enter the territories of ethnic groups, due to extreme need or institutional actions of the Colombian state, are in optimal health conditions (symptoms of Acute Respiratory Infection ( ARI) or COVID-19 or other infectious diseases, complete vaccination schedules, among others).

• Limit the development of community activities or mass assistance, canceling activities and/or rescheduling them.

• Keep people with symptoms of Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) or COVID-19 in isolation.

• Restrict contact with people with symptoms of Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) or COVID-19 within ethnic territories.

• Integrate actions that promote community surveillance focused on the timely identification of suspected cases, defining determining actors (leaders, health agents, community managers, experts, among others) and immediate notification and reporting routes.

• Develop communicative actions with clear and simple messages according to the uses and customs of the ethnic groups present in the territory (reservations, councils, community councils, Kumpanias and other community-based organizations).

• Have interpreters who facilitate the interaction, flow and effective communication of information, guaranteeing that ethnic groups (indigenous peoples and communities, Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizales and Palenqueras and the Rrom People) are aware of the administrative acts and provisions that have been issued and are issued. the national government on prevention, containment and management of coronavirus COVID-19

Finally, the actors of the General Social Security Health System, especially the departmental, district and municipal health secretariats in coordination with the leaders of the communities in their territories, must make known the recommendations contemplated in this Circular.