Malls: a temporary closure and four summaries for not complying with the Covid-19 protocol

Huge lines of people waiting to enter the stores, customers who entered without taking their temperature – some eating in different places and moving around without a mask – and crowds in the aisles. Those were some of the scenes that this Tuesday, for the second day in a row, were repeated in different shopping centers in the Metropolitan Region, a few days before Christmas and with seas of people who were also mobilizing through the streets.

This situation led the Regional Ministry of Health Secretariat (Seremi), of the RM, to increase the control and ratify that sanitary summaries have been initiated to the Plaza Norte, Costanera Center, Arauco Maipú and Plaza Oeste malls (these last three, on Monday).

Fines can go up to $ 51 million (1,000 Tax Units) for the violation of the protocols established by the sanitary norm. In the case of Mall Plaza Norte, in addition, in the Huechuraba commune, its operation was temporarily prohibited. “Several shortcomings were found that put people’s health at risk,” said the health authority regarding this shopping center.

The Metropolitan Health seremi, Paula Labra, explained that in only two entrances to the mall the temperature was taken to customers and alcohol gel was delivered, out of a total of seven entrances.

In addition, as indicated, there were crowds in common spaces, although there should be one person every ten square meters.

Labra added that there was also no distance between the tables in the food court, despite the fact that the protocol indicates that they must be at least two meters between each one. “It has to work as is the protocol of restaurants,” he explained.

In any case, the authority clarified that it is a temporary measure and that the mall will be able to start operating when it complies with the requirements, which would be evaluated during this day.

“We are going to continue monitoring other shopping centers”, Labra announced. For this, the portfolio has in Santiago 274 auditors and other 247 officials on commission from the municipalities.

Faced with these situations, the Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza, recognized his “Concern, because we are in a pandemic, seeing an increase in Covid-19 cases.”

The Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, meanwhile, added thate “We are very concerned about the images we have seen in Santiago and regions, with agglomerations in which people do not maintain physical distance or the other required safeguards.”

The mayor of Huechuraba, Carlos Square, raised that “It seems fair to me, it is something that had been denounced by the neighbors, there was a breach of several spheres, life is put above commercial interest (…) all people are aware of the danger generated by the way they are open today ”.

During the morning, the mayor of Providencia, Evelyn Matthei, the seremi Paula Labra and the head of the Safe Denunciation Program, of the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention, Sebastian Delmás, They arrived at the Costanera Center mall to monitor compliance with the sanitary measures of the enclosure, which on Monday was questioned by the health authority. Among other things, disorder was found in the lines of customers and crowds of people inside and outside the shopping center.

The Seremi Labra indicated that “we came to verify that this has been corrected for the correct operation of the mall and to avoid putting people’s health at risk. We have been able to see that the number of auditors who are inside, who are from the administration, doubled, verifying that there is distance between people to enter the stores. The food court was also improved, which was one of the shortcomings that we had detected ”.

The mayor of Providencia, Evelyn matthei, urged that people choose to stay at home. “One does not understand that these agglomerations are formed. Yesterday there were blocks of people ”, he said, underlining that “the virus is strong, infections are rising very strongly. We are in danger of running out of vacations, of closing everything and going to Phase 1 ”.

Sebastian Nunez, Operations manager of Mall Costanera Center, stated that “yesterday, in a very limited schedule, we received a very important influx of customers, not only in Costanera, but in different malls that are part of Cencosud Shopping, and we took extraordinary preventive measures: we reduced the capacity to 80% of what is allowed by the norm, in order to be able to control the distancing more effectively ”.

Sebastian Delmás, from the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention, pointed out that “Our hand is not going to shake. If it is necessary to close shopping centers during these days, they will close ”.

During the afternoon, Mall Plaza Norte issued a statement in which it was explained that “At no time did the capacity exceed 80% of what is allowed” nor were there “crowds of the public.”

It was added that the mall is reviewing all the seremi’s observations, such as the installation of “more distancing signs, in addition to those that currently exist, increasing the distancing control staff in the corridors and isolating the food court area that is closed, in order to prevent people from buying food in other sectors is consumed in that place ”.

It was also noted that the mall has an automatic people count, as well as personnel and information screens. From the company, in addition, they maintained that “Many of the images that have been transmitted in the media do not correspond to Mall Plaza Norte.”

With the rise in mobility in the city and the number of people making purchases, all stakeholders are attentive to the risk that this implies.

The Chamber of Shopping Centers affirmed, through a statement, that the phenomenon of massive public “It exceeds the forecasts made by the authorities when defining sanitary restriction measures”. It was added that, in advance, a call had been made to consumers to advance purchases and respect sanitary measures.

The statement adds that “for this union and its associates, safeguarding the health of collaborators and visitors has always been and will be the most important thing; in the next 48 hours, efforts will be redoubled to face the high demand that is occurring ”.

But not only in the Mall Plaza Norte and the Costanera Center there were significant flows. It also happened in Parque Arauco, Mall Plaza Vespucio La Florida, Paseo Ahumada and Meiggs neighborhood, among other centers.

“The crowds in Meiggs and the old town were out of control”, commented the mayor of Santiago, Felipe Alessandri, who also called for the prudence of people when going shopping. “The most important thing is health and, therefore, respect all the protocols and regulations of the authority,” he said.