Objective

To analyze the temporal progress in the early stage of COVID-19 in Colombia using the SIRD model.

Methods

We analyzed the temporal progress of COVID-19 based on the number of infected persons between March 6th and April 15th, 2020. The SIRD model was implemented with variation in the rate of transmission (b) in three ways. A. Quarantine until July 11. 2. B. Flexible quarantine, [b=4%]. C. Flexible quarantine2 [b=8%]. Consecutively, we aimed to predict the number of total cases and 5% of infected persons in ICU to match them with the hospital beds and ICU staff.

Results

The results show that the number of COVID-19 cases will increase from 54 105 to 116 081 approximately, if the quarantine is lifted on May 11. If the infection rate increase, more hospital beds and a bigger ICU staff will be mandatory. The currently 2 650 beds won't be enough in the flexible quarantine2, and five intensive care specialist and four nurses per patient will be needed.

Conclusion

Measures like mandatory social distancing help delay the saturation of the health care system. However, it's impracticable to maintain them due to a possible economic crisis. Therefore, it's necessary to take action to enhance the ability of the health care system to avoid a collapse.