As quarantine wanes, Bogota's medics brace for a spike in COVID cases

A COVID patient lies shirtless on a gurney in a chill corridor of a hospital in Colombia’s capital Bogota, oxygen tubes coiled on his chest. It takes five staff - in scrubs, masks and face shields - to wheel him into the intensive care unit.

His intubation takes time. To protect themselves from coronavirus-infected saliva during the complicated procedure, the medics place a large orb-like shield over the man’s head.

Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters

ICU nursing head Fernanda Castaneda said her staff are used to tending to ventilated patients but they are finding that COVID cases often occupy beds for weeks, instead of the three to five day turnaround for other lung conditions.

Her 14-bed unit - one of three ICUs reserved for COVID patients at El Tunal hospital in Bogota’s sprawling southern suburbs - is already filling up.

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