13 May 2020 – Committee created to recommend actions as a health response strategy

Type of Intervention: Regulation, Specific Action
Sectors Involved: Health
Level of Jurisdiction: National
Lead People/Agency: Decision made by Ministry of Health

Overview: Resolution 747, 2020 of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection created a committee for recommendation and assessment of actions taken as a health response strategy against Covid-19 in Colombia.This committee is in charge of examining and issuing a technical-scientific opinion on measures taken in the country.

The Committee is made up of the Minister of Health, the Deputy Minister of Public Health and Provision of Services, the Director of the National Health Institute (INS), the Director of the Institute of Health Technology Assessment (IETS), Dr. Antonio Trujillo of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Ramiro Guerrero and Dr. Carlos Álvarez, recognised epidemiologists.

Nine strategic indicators are assessed by the advisory committee with the aim of tracing the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. These are: effective reproduction number (Rt): this estimates how many susceptible people can be infected on average by a person who carries the virus, morbidity: regarding the terms of the evolution of new daily cases and their accumulated trend, lethality: expresses the percentage of people who have died with respect to the positive cases identified, general mortality: this considers the evolution of all-cause mortality, doubling days: this is defined as the days it takes for cases to double, positivity: it is defined as the percentage of positive samples with respect to the total of processed samples. The country average is 7.2%, ICU Hospitalisation: this measures the percentage of intensive care bed occupancy with respect to the total number of existing beds, mobility: this expresses the percentage of capacity used in mass transportation systems in cities throughout the country, and physical transactions: this indicator establishes the percentage of face-to-face transactions carried out in the financial system at ATMs and offices and in commercial establishments. It is an indirect indicator of the behavior of physical contact between people.
Full details here: https://www.minsalud.gov.co/sites/rid/Lists/BibliotecaDigital/RIDE/DE/DIJ/resolucion-747-de-2020.pdf

Type of Justification: Advice of INTERNAL government advisory committee or group, Advice of EXTERNAL expert advisor or advisory committee
Source of Evidence or Justification: National – academic, National – government
Evidence/Justification: It is the function of the Ministry of Health to coordinate the execution and evaluate strategies for the promotion, prevention and control of communicable diseases, likewise, the National Institute of Health within the framework of the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation must promote scientific research, innovation and formulation of studies according to public health priorities