The sanitary vehicle restriction will be suspended during the weekends and the circulation schedule will be extended by one hour: from 5 am to 9 pm, as announced by President Carlos Alvarado on October 15th. The measure is effective as of this weekend. Now drivers will be able to circulate for six days a week.
Until now, the restriction allowed driving for five days a week, with one restriction day on weekdays and one restriction day on weekends. The weekend hours were from 5 am to 8 pm.
The government announced this change after the Ombudsman’s Office requested a technical justification to maintain the sanitary vehicle restriction on private vehicles.
A necessary measure
For his part, the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, indicated that this measure has contributed to containing the spread of Covid-19 in Costa Rica, in conjunction with other measures such as distancing and health orders.
“Possibly if we had removed the vehicle restriction several months ago we would have a much higher infection rate. Of course, it does contribute,” said Minister Salas.
Salas also indicated that the Ministry has “studies that have been carried out by statistical specialists” to demonstrate the contribution of this measure. Still, he indicated that detailing an exact number is difficult because several measures were applied together.
