Bogota, April 6 (IANS) Colombia's capital Bogota stepped up pandemic restrictions by declaring an orange alert in a bid to curb the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Stricter measures were necessary as the city's intensive care units (ICUs) are at 64.6 per cent capacity and transmission rates are on the rise, Xinhua news agency quoted Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez as saying on Monday.

"Which puts pressure on hospital capacity and places us on the Covid dashboard's orange alert, which forces us to take new measures and prepare to prevent a dramatic third peak (in cases of infection) in the last week of April," Lopez said.

The District Secretary of Health ordered healthcare centres to suspend all non-urgent procedures.

"Today we are going to work toward three things: enabling between 150 and 160 additional ICUs each week, maximising the number of tests and strengthening the epidemiological fence" around the virus, said Lopez.

"At this rate, it is necessary to take measures to further contain community transmission and expand hospital capacity," she added.

According to the latest report from the Colombian Ministry of Health, the country has reported 2,456,409 confirmed coronavirus cases and 64,293 deaths.

--IANS ksk/