Shops in Costa Rica must close access to the public at 9 p.m. for 20 days. This is the measure taken by the Government in the face of the increase in COVID-19 cases in the country.
According to what was announced this past Saturday, the closing of shops is parallel to the application of the schedule of the sanitary vehicle circulation restriction, which, from next Tuesday, April 27th, until Sunday, May 16th, will be extended and will be in force from 9 p.m and until 5 a.m.
That is, the mobility impediment will extend its schedule by two hours (currently it is from 11 p.m.), even on weekends and this new schedule must be followed by all businesses that have health permits to operate with attention to the public.
Due to the accelerated increase in cases of COVID-19
The Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, said that this measure is taken due to the accelerated increase in cases of COVID-19: this Saturday there were 1,830 cases and seven deaths. “We have to understand the moment we are living in,” Salas said, explaining that the restriction schedule is extended because there are various studies that indicate that this measure is effective in reducing the unnecessary mobility of people and with this the contacts between people who are not part of the same social bubble.
“I know that many people say: Why do they insist on fear?” “No, no, it is that we value life, it is that here we want as many people as we can, that we can get out of this Pandemic alive, that we do not suffer at the family level,” said Salas, criticizing all those who say that the Pandemic does not exist.
The authorities indicated that immediate measures should be taken to stop the contagion curve, because otherwise, very soon, there will be no beds in hospitals and this will affect not only COVID-19 cases, but all types of patients that require health services: people who suffered a heart attack or a traffic accident, for example.
Controls will be maintained
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Public Security, Eduardo Solano, said that controls will be maintained on the road to regulate the sanitary vehicle circulation restriction, clandestine parties and breaches of sanitary measures in businesses.
“From the police forces, work has been intensifying in recent weeks for the application of the sanitary vehicle circulation restriction, which will begin to take effect from next Tuesday at 9 pm. We will to continue to apply forcefully the operations from 11 pm and the restriction by license plates both Saturdays and Sundays”.
“We have been intensifying capacity control operations of prohibited activities in commercial and clandestine establishments,” added Solano, who added that during the controls carried out this past weekend, 40 businesses were closed that were not complying with health and safety measures and more than 900 reports of clandestine parties or music scandals were received.
