Colombia to begin mandatory isolation from Tuesday

Colombia will go into compulsory general confinement from Tuesday until April 13 to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, President Ivan Duque announced Friday.

"As part of the state of emergency, we will apply compulsory preventive isolation for all Colombians from next Tuesday," he said in an address to the nation.

Nearly half of the population are already taking part in a full-scale isolation exercise from Friday to Monday midnight to test the effectiveness of such measures.