CAMPOHERMOSO, Colombia (AP) – When customers enter his hardware store, Nelson Avila asks them to wear a mask and wash their hands. He sprays alcohol on the bills and coins they give him before putting them in the cash register.
The Avila store is in Campohermoso, a town of 3,000 in the state of Boyaca, in the mountains of central Colombia, which does not report cases of the coronavirus. According to the Ministry of Health, the municipality of Campohermoso – which consists of the municipality and the surrounding farms and villages – is one of only two municipalities in the country without COVID-19. Colombia has more than 1,100 counties.
“These bills can transmit the virus,” said Ávila, 49, while disinfecting a crumpled wad of Colombian pesos. “They go hand in hand, so we have to be careful.”
Officials and local residents say the city has been able to keep the virus at bay thanks to the disciplined behavior of its residents and constant campaigns that encourage people to distance themselves and wear masks.
The remote location of the city surrounded by mountains, away from the main roads, also helped it to get rid of the coronavirus. It has only seven streets and six avenues arranged in an organized grid. It is situated at the bottom of a green valley, about 1,000 meters above sea level.
“Campohermosos has a low population density and little contact with large cities,” said Jairo Mauricio Santoyo, health secretary for the state of Boyacá.
Given that Colombia, with a population of around 50 million people, has reported more than 2.3 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, many consider the lack of infections here to be a small miracle.
During the first decade of this century, Campohermoso was affected by fighting between paramilitary groups and leftist rebels, says the city’s mayor, Jaime Rodríguez. The coffee growing area has been peaceful for over a decade, but is rarely visited by outsiders.
Rodríguez says the communication was crucial to keeping the pandemic away from Campohermoso. Messages about the virus and how to prevent it are transmitted three times a day on loudspeakers placed on the city’s streetlights.
The local radio also shows daily programs that talk about prevention. To ensure that everyone understands the message, the city has distributed 1,000 radios to farmers living in the rural area of Campohermoso.
“The whole city has come together,” said Rodríguez. “The police, the health center, the church staff and the mayor’s office go to the radio station to talk about the virus.”
Rodríguez said his message to the city’s residents was simple: “It is up to each family to prevent this.”
He also tried to set an example. The mayor says he started feeling bad during a recent visit to Bogotá, where he tested positive for the virus. He did not return to Campohermoso until he was negative.
“We placed 60 families in the city in quarantine because they had some symptoms,” said Rodríguez. “But they were all negative.”
Deals are already open in Campohermoso and only allow customers with a mask. The city has not banned visitors from other parts of the country, but those who arrive and wish to stay have been asked to quarantine at a relative’s house and receive a daily call from the local nurse.
Campohermoso’s only school is operating at half its normal capacity. Students are divided into shifts and attend school on alternate days.
And in the predominantly Roman Catholic city, the local priest was also involved in prevention efforts.
“We pray to São Roque, who is our patron and protector of the sick,” says Father Camilo Monroy, who also went on the radio to talk about ways to prevent the spread of the virus.
The only other city in Colombia supposedly free of the coronavirus is San Juanito, which is also located in a remote valley in the Andes mountains.
The authorities consider the two cases striking because the virus appeared even in villages in the Amazon jungle, which can only be reached by boat or small plane.
Campohermoso has already vaccinated 80 people, most of them elderly people over 80 years old.
Now, the coronavirus-free county is waiting for more injections from Colombia’s central government.
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Astrid Suarez reported from Bucaramanga, Colombia.