(San José) The Costa Rican authorities, faced with an outbreak of the COVID epidemic – 19, decided on Friday to impose severe restrictions on transport and commerce in the capital San José and its suburbs.
Posted on 10 July 2020 at 17 h 47
France Media Agency
Costa Rica, which until now has been a model in Central America in the fight against the new coronavirus, has been facing for two weeks a “very worrying acceleration” of the epidemic, had warned the minister the day before Costa Rican Health Daniel Salas.
Until 19 July, residents of San José and its region, the most populous in the country, will be banned from driving , with the exception of one outing per day on weekdays for shopping, while only essential shops will be open (food stores, pharmacies and health services).
In addition, public transport will only operate at 20% of their capacity.
Finally, only the alternating circulation of vehicles according to their even or odd registration will be authorized on Saturdays and Sundays, from 5 a.m. local time to 10 H (daytime hours in Costa Rica).
“We need as little traffic (people) as possible. This is our mission, “said President Carlos Alvarado when announcing these measures at a press conference.
The authorities thus hope to be able to “track the contagion” again, while the country has officially entered the “community contagion” phase, according to the WHO.
A total of 649 new cases were recorded Thursday in this small country of five million inhabitants, the highest daily balance since the beginning of the pandemic. However, this figure fell to 360 on Friday.
The total assessment is now of 6845 proven cases, with 26 deaths.
“The fact of not circulating for the next nine days will increase the possibility of finding the trace of the virus, which we have lost,” argued the Minister of Health.
