CAMPOHERMOSO – When customers enter his hardware store Nelson Avila asks them to wear a mask and wash their hands.
He sprays alcohol over the bills and coins they give him before putting them in the till. Avila's shop is in Campohermoso, a town of 3,000 people in Boyaca state in the mountains of central Colombia that has no reported cases of the coronavirus.
According to the Health Ministry, Campohermoso county - which consists of the town and surrounding farms and villages - is one of just two counties in the country that are COVID-19-free.
Colombia has more than 1,100 counties. “Those bills can carry the virus” said Avila, 49, as he disinfects a wad of wrinkled Colombian pesos. “They go from hand to hand, so we have to be careful.” Off