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RIO – Given the worsening of Covid-19 figures throughout the state, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes decided to extend restrictions and close the city’s beaches and leisure areas starting this weekend. The decree with the new measures will be published this Friday (19) in the Official Gazette of the Rio City Council, and will be valid as of this Saturday (20).
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The information was anticipated by columnist Guilherme Amado, from Época, and confirmed by Mayor Eduardo Paes to GLOBO. According to the municipal secretary of Health, Daniel Soranz, the number of admissions to ICU in the city was record, which justifies the adoption of new isolation measures.
According to sources linked to the city council, the closure of the leisure areas is the first stage of an extension of the restrictions that should be defined next Monday (22). A meeting of the council of experts that attends the municipality should align the new restrictive measures in the city.
GLOBO found that the city works with the hypothesis of tightening the measures even beyond those adopted in other capitals, such as São Paulo and Salvador, but the decision will only be made after the meeting with the experts.
This Friday (19), Paes and the Secretary of Health, Daniel Soranz, give a press conference at 8 am at the Rio Operations Center, where the XI Covid-19 Epidemiological Bulletin will be released in the city. At that time, the mayor will need to detail the actions that will be taken over the weekend and how the inspection will be carried out.
The experts are divided
The professor of the Uerj Institute of Social Medicine, Mário Roberto Dal Poz considers Mayor Eduardo Paes’s decision to close the beaches and recreation areas on the edge of the South Zone to contain the advance of Covid-19 “a good start”. However, he cautions that this alone is not enough.
– The beach and the shore are places of great agglomeration – says Dal Poz – It is necessary to look at the North Zone, the crowds and carry out campaigns to encourage the use of masks. The example of the authorities and officials is also important. In public offices, employees not wearing a mask cannot be tolerated. Today I went to the city center and saw many people without masks. The elevator in the building I was in was full. This can’t – alert
Dr. Tânia Vergara, from the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, does not agree with the closure of the beaches and the shore, because they are open places. She believes Rio is not yet at the point of adopting a blockade, although it is close to having to adopt the measure.
– The mayor had a lot to close. Beaches and coastline must be controlled, not closed. Yes, the kiosks must be closed. Open spaces are safe if people don’t crowd and wear masks. What cannot be that the beach is crowded -he says- More importantly is to solve the problem of public transport, buses, trains, the subway, which travel overcrowded.
The closure of the beaches was adopted last year by the then mayor Marcelo Crivella, between the months of June and November. Despite the City Council decree at the time, scenes of crowds on the sand during sunny weekends were common in the city. Crivella even proposed the creation of “corrals” to guarantee space between bathers, but the idea was never implemented.
