Seven communes enter the Preparation stage: What does this advance imply?

As of Wednesday, September 2, a sector of Greater Santiago will enter a new phase of disconfinement: the Ministry of Health announced yesterday that the communes of Providencia, Ñuñoa, Las Condes and Vitacura will advance to the Preparation phase (Step 3) of the Step by Step plan.

In the Metropolitan Region, San José de Maipo will join other rural communes that are already in Step 3, such as Alhué, Pirque, Paine and San Pedro. In addition, in the Valparaíso Region, San Felipe and Los Andes will also advance.

This will be the first time that a sector of Greater Santiago has progressed so much in deconfinement, after the massive quarantine that the health authority applied to 32 communes in the capital on May 15, 108 days ago.

What does it mean to go to the Preparation phase? That these communes will not be quarantined on weekends and that their residents will be able to go out to work, as long as they do not cross into more confined areas; do sports activities with a maximum of 25 people indoors; and have social gatherings for up to 50 people.

They will also start serving restaurants, cafes and similar spaces, provided it is in open places, such as sidewalks and terraces, with a minimum distance of two meters between tables or with a maximum of 25% of their capacity. This is a modification to Step 3, which previously did not contemplate these reopens.

Cinemas, theaters, pubs and discos will not be able to open and the night curfew will be maintained. Face-to-face classes will also continue to be suspended, but the opening of schools may be authorized exceptionally, at the request of mayors. In the four communes of Greater Santiago that begin Step 3, there are 211 schools and 133 thousand schoolchildren.

The Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, also announced the application of the exit permit for adults over 75 years of age. “In Transition, they can go out from Monday to Friday, without restriction. And in Preparation, they will be able to go out every day, without restriction, ”said the minister, in the company of the First Lady, Cecilia Morel.

The mayor of Ñuñoa, Andrés Zarhi, assures that to face this new opening “we increased the number of municipal inspectors, who since last week have the powers to infringe those who fail to comply with sanitary measures.” And the mayor of Providencia, Evelyn Matthei, asked her neighbors to maintain preventive measures. “We don’t want to go back to phase 2 and that depends on the responsible behavior of all of us,” he says.

With these new advances and setbacks, as of Wednesday in the country there will be 52 communes in quarantine (8.2 million people), 29 communes in Transition (4.2 million), 209 communes in Preparation (5.6 million) and 55 communes in Initial Opening (1.5 million).

The announcement occurs when a sector of Santiago completed a month in the Transition phase, after Las Condes, Ñuñoa, Vitacura, La Reina, Lo Barnechea, Colina and Tiltil came out of quarantine on July 28.

During the month, those communes experienced a rebound in active Covid-19 infections, but which was later controlled. This is how it is observed in Las Condes, that on July 31 it had 125 active infections, a figure that fell until August 10 and then began to rebound slightly, to reach 132 active cases on August 28.

“The commune has behaved well, the neighbors are complying and the infections are stabilized. We were worried when Providencia, Santiago and Estación Central were released, but in general the infections are stabilized ”, says Mayor Joaquín Lavín.

Nor was there a major outbreak in Ñuñoa, which had 115 active cases at the end of July, which began to rise and fell on August 17. He now has 92 active cases, even fewer than when the Transition began, which allowed him to advance to Step 3. Mayor Zarhi says they implemented an active search strategy for infections. However, he is concerned about the agglomerations in commercial areas and green areas, “for which we are reinforcing the inspection, although there is no really effective inspection if we do not have collaboration from the neighbors.”

The mayor of La Reina, José Manuel Palacios, has the same concern, where there was a rebound in infections: the commune came out of quarantine with 43 active cases and there are already 73 (70% increase). “After two weeks, we saw a moderate increase, but one that worried us. We called on the neighbors to resume the preventive quarantine, but for some factor at one point the infections rose a lot, a significant increase was noticed in the last week, “says the mayor.

There was also an increase in Lo Barnechea, which began Step 2 with 64 active cases and is now going to 102. Mayor Cristóbal Lira says that this is due to greater mobility, as jobs were reactivated, such as gardeners and consultants of home. This was influenced by the increase in social life, “as has happened in La Dehesa and Los Trapenses, where we have had significant pockets of young people who have gathered in groups, which increases infections.”

In Colina and Tiltil, the Transition began with 85 active cases, which fell and then rebounded until reaching 122. And outside the capital, in the Valparaíso Region, the communes of San Antonio and San Felipe also began Step 2 on 28 of July. They started with 107 active cases, which quickly increased and now stabilized at 119, 11% more than at the beginning.

Together, the nine communes came out of quarantine with 572 active cases, they rose to 742 in the week of August 17 and by Friday they had dropped to 678 (19% more than a month ago).

Mayors say greater mobility is a factor that increases infections. According to the Ministry of Transport, between August 21 and 28, vehicle flow increased by 5.7% on average in La Reina, and by 5.2% in Ñuñoa.

Transport Minister Gloria Hutt said they saw a progressive increase in mobility in communes that advanced to Step 2. For example, if on June 17 mobility in the RM was 62.1% lower than in March, on August 28 it was only 36.8% lower than in March.

“To address this challenge, we have implemented a National Mobility Plan, which seeks that people move safely through the city and have various options to do so,” explains Hutt, which is complemented by the use of the mask on public transport.