My name is Jorge R., co-owner of Orthomax, a company that has provided dental services for 30 years in the market in the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia. In addition, we have different hostels in Barichara; Barichara is cataloged as the most beautiful town in Colombia.

Regarding the question of the change of COVID-19 in my life. It seems important to me to comment that the collapse of economic demand has two main effects. The first and the main one given its magnitude is that dental service companies (my sector) and hostels have stopped receiving income for the provision of these services. For example, before COVID-19, the dental service was 30 patients a day, and one patient every 15 minutes.

On the other hand, as soon as the lodging we had guests from different parts of the country and the world every weekend in our lodgings. But thanks to the measures of containment of the coronavirus, it has reduced the number of patients by 75% compared to the demand in May and the forced closure of the facility during the end of March, all April, May, and June, as well as lodging in our establishments.

This has been a strong financial shock; and to ensure continuity in the provision of both dental and lodging services in our hostels, it must be assumed by us, through loans with banks to continue our business. For this reason, we have decided to start the bankruptcy process. It has not been an easy acceptance process, it is a job of a lifetime, not only mine, it’s the business of my family too, it is the support of our home. But this situation of the COVID has been ruthless and irreparable in terms of our finances, therefore in our lives as well.