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The cellulose production activity is defined as essential, but not the construction of the Modernization and Expansion project of the Arauco plant (MAPA) in the commune of the same name.
It is the largest task that is currently being built in the Bío Bío region, with an investment of more than 2 billion dollars, and with 8 thousand people currently employed in that work.
More than 2,500 of those workers They reside in one of the six communes of Greater Concepción that are currently in quarantine and could not move. However, the Minister of Health, Héctor Muñoz, confirmed that yes they will be allowed with a negative PCR.
“We established for people in quarantined communes that, due to some important activities that are being carried out in that construction, only people who have undergone a PCR and the result of them are negative can work,” he said.
The decision already generates criticism for the unequal treatment of other smaller construction works that are paralyzed and other economic activities that barely survive due to the pandemic. The Socialist deputy, Manuel Monsalve, said that in fact a third of the covid-19 cases in the province of Arauco are linked to the MAPA project.
“A third of the positive cases in the province of Arauco have their origin in the MAPA project and the health authority has not made it transparent what has been the effect of this project on the number of new and active cases from the province of Concepción and Bío Bío ”, assured Monsalve.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Bío Bío, Sergio Giacaman, after being consulted about the disparate treatment offered to a large company at a time when the authority advocates a strict quarantine, tried to explain the reasons for this decision.
“What we have to look at is that we are in an exceptional situation, they they are carrying out important work for an industry that we have defined as essential and in that context, a protocol has been defined, “said Giacaman.
Mauricio Leiva, manager of Public Affairs of the Arauco company, did not refer to the controversy, but indicated that they will abide by what the health authority orders.
“We have deepened our active search strategy with rapid tests, taking PCR tests to all project workers. The idea is to be able to identify positive cases prior to entering this work ”, he declared.
The situation of the MAPA project was addressed this Monday in the Special Investigative Commission of the Government’s acts related to covid-19, where the mayor of Bío Bío and the Ministry of Health were summoned. The latter realized in the first instance that workers from quarantined communes could not go to the project, but later the exception was reported with those who prove a negative PCR.
Listen to the defense of the Bío Bío mayor, Sergio Giacaman, with the exception of the MAPA project:
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