What will the gradual reopening of municipalities without coronavirus be like?

This week the government team will study the possibility that some economic sectors begin to operate in 900 municipalities where no cases of COVID-19 have been reported.

“They are adapting and reviewing what the protocols that clients and service providers must comply with will be. We have a platform that will evaluate these protocols so that the sectors can be restarted in an orderly manner, ”said Duque.

For his part, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, José Manuel Restrepo, reiterated that the reactivation of the economy will be gradual, once the biosafety protocols have been defined.

How did the proposal come about?

EL HERALDO learned that last week the Minister of the Interior held a meeting with the governors, who asked the Government for the possibility of resuming productive life in those municipalities where no case of coronavirus has occurred.

The request of the local leaders is legally supported in paragraph 6 of article 3 of Decree 593 of April 24, 2020.

Said decree reads: “The exceptions that are additionally considered necessary to be added by the governors and mayors must be previously informed and coordinated with the Ministry of the Interior.”

Thus, local leaders may request the Government to reactivate some economic sectors in the nearly 900 municipalities in the country that do not have COVID-19 cases.

What will the study be like?

The Ministry of the Interior must study these requests with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Commerce and a team of epidemiologists. After evaluating the risks, the Government would make the final decision.

Conditions and sectors

Duque added that the protection measures for those over 70 years of age, such as youth and children, who will continue in virtual classes, would be maintained.

A government source told EL HERALDO that this possibility of economic opening is being studied, as long as inter-municipal transport restrictions are maintained and foreign nationals are not allowed to enter the municipality free of COVID-19.

The same source added that billiards, discos and bars will not be opened. And although in these municipalities there are usually no gyms, he specified that these would not start working either.

Likewise, the Minister of Commerce indicated this Sunday that the restaurants will remain with the domicile scheme. Also within the economic sectors that could be reactivated, added the minister, are beauty salons, miscellaneous and small businesses.

We are prepared?

Although several countries in the world are taking measures of lack of confidence, are we ready in Colombia to take that step?

The internist doctor Juan José Márquez stated that at some point the economic sectors will have to be reopened gradually and gradually. However, he added that it is not yet clear if the country is really prepared to reactivate its economic sectors.

“It is not about having protocols on paper, it is about complying with them and with constant support and pedagogy, not with restrictive measures,” he said.

Likewise, the internist clarified that it could not be said, at the moment, that there are municipalities without COVID -19, but places where “no cases have been diagnosed.”

Although the network of laboratories has been expanded throughout the territory, there are still many areas in which no tests have been carried out.

Sucre to send proposal to revive the economy

The Governor of Sucre, Héctor Espinosa Oliver, and the Mayor of Sincelejo, Andrés Gómez Martínez, agreed this weekend that in the next few hours they will send the national government a proposal that will gradually and safely reactivate some sectors of the economy.

Both acknowledge that many people today have turned to the streets to find a way to survive in the midst of the quarantine decreed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but they also warn of the need to maintain measures so that the virus does not enter to Sucre. “People have already started taking to the streets because they need to improve their living conditions, because they have to work and produce and more in a city where more than 70% depend on the informal economy,” said the Mayor of Sincelejo.

The authorities’ pronouncement comes at a time when the Sincelejo Chamber of Commerce has asked them to revive the economy and after two protests by merchants in the center of the capital of Sucre who declare bankruptcy and claim the same rights that they have given to those of the large surfaces to work.

It should be noted that in Sucre only one positive case of coronavirus is registered and it has already recovered. According to the authorities, this is due to the biosafety checkpoints that are in all the municipal and departmental limits and that restrict mobility.

However, the number of COVID-19 tests that have been carried out does not reach 500. As of May 3, they had taken 468, of which only 388 had reached the laboratories, with 80 to send and results of 70 The negatives are 317.