On 6 March 2020, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection confirmed Colombia's first case of coronavirus, a 19-year-old female patient who had recently travelled to Milan, Italy.
[16] President Iván Duque announced that as of 16 March 2020, entry to Colombia would be restricted for visitors who had been in Europe or Asia within the past 14 days.
[19] Due to the fast spread of the virus during the quarantine period, the mandatory nationwide lockdown was extended several times until 1 September 2020, when it was ended by the Colombian government.
After the patient's decease, the National Health Institute (INS) analyzed two tests from him, both of which were negative with one of those being taken improperly, but decided to keep the investigation open owing to his sister's condition.
[26] To enter Colombia by air, from 30 September 2020 through 2 June 2021, travelers had to present a negative PCR test result issued within 96 hours before departure.
[27] From 14 December 2021, travelers must show proof of full vaccination, or else present a negative PCR test result within 72 hours of boarding.
[33] For the second trimester of 2020, the country's GDP fell by 15.7% compared to the same period of 2019, which was reported as the greatest Colombian economic decline in recent history.
The airline, having suspended all its passenger operations since late March due to the government's decision to close the country's airspace, had to ground 142 aircraft, send 12,000 out of its 20,000 employees on unpaid leave, and saw its income reduced by over 80 per cent.
[47] In late May it was confirmed that LATAM Colombia, the country's second largest airline, had also filed for Chapter 11 along with its parent company and other subsidiaries.
[48] On 28 May 2020, the Colombian government through Transportation Minister Ángela María Orozco confirmed that international flights would remain barred until at least 31 August, but stated that they could likely resume in September.
[55] During the first stage of reactivation, only flights between Colombia and Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, and the United States were operated, and starting from 30 September 2020 all passengers were required to present upon arrival a negative PCR test taken within 96 hours of the departure of the flight in order to enter the country.
As the economy reactivated, and government guidelines ordered vehicle occupation to be capped at a 35% maximum, passengers increased but ridership remained low.
The operation of Transmetro in Barranquilla was suspended on the morning of 2 May 2020 until further notice as passengers were not abiding by social distancing instructions within the system and vehicles were overcrowded.
The Resolution 1537 of 2020 allowed urban mass transit systems to run at a 50% maximum occupancy and requested the implementation of measures to regulate access of passengers to stations, terminals, ticket booths, and vehicles, as well as the organization of lines that guarantee a two-metre separation between people, or as determined by the competent local authorities to prevent crowding.
As for long-distance intercity travel, the protocol established that routes should be planned, identifying in advance the places where stops could be made every three hours to fill up fuel, make use of bathrooms, and verify that vehicles are equipped with enough basic personal hygiene products.
The same resolution also allowed members of a same family group to mobilize in a same vehicle according to its maximum capacity, with mandatory use of face masks.
[64] Only half as many trips were taken on urban public transit in 2020 as compared to the previous year, according to the results of a survey of eight metropolitan areas and 15 cities, released by DANE on 16 February 2021.
There were long queues outside some stores and social media was flooded with images of people jostling to enter shops and hauling away TVs and other consumer goods.
President Iván Duque pointed out that most people had observed social distancing during the day, but also acknowledged that there were crowds in some places and citizen behaviour had not been good enough.
The day was harshly criticized by local rulers such as mayor of Bogotá Claudia López, who dubbed it as "Covid Friday", citizens in social media, epidemiologists and health experts, who expressed concern over the realization of such a day in the midst of a pandemic and at a moment when the number of daily cases was increasing rapidly and the peak of the pandemic had not been reached yet.
They also stated fears that one of the activity's future consequences would be the increase of the speed of transmission of coronavirus, thus damaging the effort made during the lockdown.
[72] By early July, one-third of restaurants in Colombia had closed permanently, as they were generally unable to obtain long-term concessions from their landlords.
The report stated that armed groups were imposing rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in at least 11 of Colombia's 32 departments: Arauca, Bolívar, Caquetá, Cauca, Chocó, Córdoba, Guaviare, Huila, Nariño, Norte de Santander and Putumayo, which were reportedly stricter than the measures issued by the Colombian government, using or threatening to use violence to enforce their rules, and even punishing with death to those who failed to comply with them.
Historically they have not had access to health, water or food and in the context of this pandemic this situation is much more serious because they do not have the sanitary and social conditions to deal adequately with COVID-19".
[83] Starting from 24 March 2020, the television show Prevención y acción (Prevention and Action) was broadcast daily from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. with President Duque explaining to citizens the most recent updates on the pandemic in the country and the decisions made by the government to contain it.
While the show recorded relatively high rating numbers during its first two months and has been considered by figures such as Pan American Health Organization Assistant Director Jarbas Barbosa as an example on how to inform and communicate updates on the situation to citizens, opposition politicians have considered it to be "an abusive use of the media by the President to make irrelevant announcements and permanent advertisement" and have requested for it to be shut down.
[86] The inauguration of the Congress's second ordinary session of the year, scheduled to be held on 20 July 2020, was confirmed to be virtual, accompanied by the Office of the Inspector General to ensure transparency in the election process of the new directives of the Senate.
The Colombian government confirmed that it had ordered enough doses, through COVAX and direct from manufacturers, to vaccinate 34 million people (70% of the country's population) with the hope of reaching herd immunity.
[110] On 4 May 2020, a brawl broke out at the municipal prison in San José del Guaviare, where it was discovered that inmates had used alcohol-based sanitizer to get drunk.
The focus was on prisoners who were disabled, ill, over 60 years old, or new mothers (pregnant, nursing, or with children under age 3), and who had already served about half of their original brief sentence.