Bacteriologist Diana Carolina Galvan hands pilot box Ernesto Perez a box containing COVID-19 samples
La Primavera, Colombia:
“This is the HK4679 G on a humanitarian flight between La Primavera and Cumaribo, carrying COVID-19 tests at 3,500 feet,” Ernesto Perez told a nearby military base by radio while flying his twin-engine aircraft at above the vast eastern plains of Colombia.
Perez, who works in financial technology, asked for permission to make a detour to avoid the storm clouds, guiding the disinfected plane to one of the most remote cities in the Andean country.
He is one of over 100 private aircraft owners who have responded to a call from President Ivan Duque to help transport doctors and medical supplies to the most remote areas of Colombia.
Without airplanes, it would be impossible to get coronavirus tests from rural areas to urban laboratories before the samples were damaged. Duque called the pilots a “silent hero”.
“It was a call from the president, who had to connect the most remote regions of the country so that we can take the samples that will be tested in Bogota,” Perez said on the track at La Primavera before heading to his next stop. . “During the rainy season, it’s impossible by road.”
Private planes have transported thousands of samples and dozens of doctors on more than 200 flights since the declaration of a state of emergency in March, including taking medical personnel to the province of Arauca, on the border with Venezuela.
While waiting for the plane at La Primavera, in the province of Vichada, two hospital officials and 34 samples of coronavirus.
The city has no confirmed cases of coronaviruses, but authorities are conducting random tests.
“(The planes) are great service because of the difficult access,” said hospital bacteriologist Diana Carolina Galvan.
The aircraft also took 47 samples from the city of Cumaribo.
Colombia has more than 39,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and nearly 1,300 deaths.
Perez said he was afraid of being infected but would continue to steal because he wanted to help.
“It is absolute satisfaction.”
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
