10 March 2020 – Quarantine for people arriving from China, Italy, France, and Spain

Type of Intervention: Regulation, Specific Action
Sectors Involved: Foreign Affairs, Health, Immigration, Transportation
Level of Jurisdiction: National
Lead People/Agency: Decision made by: Ministry of Health
Intervention by: National Health Institute, Territorial health directorates or health secretariats at the departmental and district levels, Colombia migration

Overview: Preventive sanitary measures are adopted in the country, due to the coronavirus COVID2019. In order to prevent and control the spread of the coronavirus epidemic COVID2019, sanitary preventive measures are adopted for the isolation and quarantine of people who, from the entry into force of this administrative act, arrive in Colombia from the People’s Republic China, Italy, France and Spain.

The measures dealt with in this administrative act shall govern from the entry into force of this administrative act until May 30, 2020 and may be lifted before that date when the causes that gave rise to it disappear or be extended, if they persist.
Full details here: http://www.regiones.gov.co/Inicio/assets/files/3.pdf

Type of Justification: Advice of INTERNAL government advisory committee or group, Scientific Evidence (e.g. academic paper, report)
Source of Evidence or Justification: World Health Organisation, National – government, International – academic
Evidence/Justification: The new virus behaves similarly to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronaviruses, in which the transmission mechanisms have been identified as: 1) respiratory drops when coughing and sneezing , 2) indirect contact by inanimate surfaces, and 3) micro-droplet aerosols, and it has been established that it has a higher rate of contagion.

 That, according to the WHO, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is transmitted from person to person, being able to cross geographical borders through infected passengers; symptoms are usually nonspecific, with fever, chills, and muscle pain, but can lead to severe pneumonia and even death.