Colombia implemented a six-month lockdown to control coronavirus but there was a steep price to pay

With her beaming smile, jovial manner and contagious air of enthusiasm, it's difficult to imagine Gloria Zuluaga ever losing her optimism. Yet in May, as COVID-19 cases began to surge in Colombia, the 52-year-old restaurant owner found herself helpless and fearing the worst. Standing outside a hospital in Bogota under one of the capital's infamous tropical downpours, she pleaded with hospital staff for help. She felt faint, her airways closed up and she choked for breath. 'I was sweating, choking and I started shaking like I had epilepsy,' Zuluaga recalls. 'I felt so vulnerable.' As she suspected, the symptoms were diagnosed as having been caused by the novel coronavirus — though not directly.