Colombia extends lockdown to five months as cases surge

Colombian President Ivan Duque on Tuesday extended a nationwide lockdown until August 30, by which time the country will have been under a quarantine for over five months.

The head of state made the announcement as Colombia recorded more than 10,000 daily coronavirus infections for the first time.

Colombia is one of the Latin American countries where Covid-19 is spreading most rapidly, with the Health Ministry confirming a total of 267,385 infections and 9,074 deaths on Tuesday.

"The preventive compulsory isolation ... will be extended until August 30," Duque said on television.

The lockdown has already been extended over half a dozen times, most recently until August 1.

Duque said the government would simultaneously continue reopening the economy in municipalities with no or relatively few coronavirus cases.

The epicentres of the pandemic include Bogota, which has imposed additional rolling quarantines in most of its districts. Other cities where intensive care units are also filling up have imposed measures such as partial quarantines, overnight curfews and bans on alcohol sales.