Colombians disinfect vehicles at traffic lights in Bogotá for a dollar
From the streets of Bogotá the car cleaners who were looking for the daily sustenance at the traffic lights disappeared, and now that place is occupied by citizens affected by the mandatory quarantine by the coronavirus who hope to survive the crisis by disinfecting private vehicles.
In the west of the Colombian capital, a group of independent professionals, unemployed due to the national emergency, offers drivers the cleaning service for cars, the price of which is around 1,000 and 5,000 pesos (about a dollar).
"We are, due to the issue of isolation, carrying out a disinfection program on public roads for vehicles," Anderson, an independent lawyer who started this initiative with his friends for a week, told Efe.
According to him, with his undertaking they intend to help the citizens of the city to comply with the sanitary and biosecurity requirements imposed by the Government to control the spread of the virus.
Dressed in anti-fluid suits and equipped with fumigation containers, they disinfect bicycles, motorcycles, taxis, private vehicles, vans, cabins of some vans and dumpers, the leader of the initiative detailed.
Anderson's team takes advantage of the traffic light change to invite "drivers to a disinfection day" in which they partially or thoroughly clean the areas of vehicles exposed to contact.
The process is quick and in less than ten minutes men disinfect the interior and surface of cars, and spray drivers with the non-toxic product.
At the beginning of the quarantine, which began on March 25, public institutions held this type of conference in common areas to prevent infections, which already reached 5,008 cases in the capital, from continuing to spread.
However, it is increasingly common to find citizens in various parts of Bogotá who have been forced by the crisis to look for new forms of income and for whom it is impossible to stay at home complying with preventive isolation.
Of just over 20 million Colombian workers, at least 11 million live on informality, a major obstacle during the pandemic for households that survive without monthly fixed incomes.
"I am a professional lawyer and considering that at the moment the Superior Council of the Judiciary has the terms paralyzed, the independent lawyer does not have much to do," added Anderson.
With his partner, a mechatronic engineer, Anderson hopes to expand the business and design more sophisticated instruments, such as a disinfection booth that works with spray or ultraviolet light, to help them survive the coronavirus that already leaves 14,216 infections in the country.
