As of this Friday, April 1, establishments with a health operating permit will be able to operate with 100% capacity and without the need to verify the vaccination status of clients or users. Likewise, the period of use of the QR code is also lifted.
With the arrival of the month of April and the decrease in cases and hospitalizations, as well as a high vaccination rate, the country left behind most of the health restrictions to combat the pandemic caused by COVID-19.
As of this Friday, April 1, establishments with a health operating permit will be able to operate with 100% capacity and without the need to verify the vaccination status of clients or users. Likewise, the period of use of the QR code is also lifted.
To this is added the fact that from today people who enter the country will not have to present the health pass, regardless of whether they are foreigners or nationals.
In this way, after the beginning of this month, the few health measures that are still in force are the mandatory use of masks in closed places, as well as the mandatory nature of the complete vaccination scheme for minors and public officials.
In addition, hand washing is maintained before entering establishments or activities.
In the case of infections, according to the Ministry of Health, a health order will be issued for seven days from the first day of symptoms for those who are positive for COVID-19. This order also applies to contacts of cases that do not have the three doses of the vaccine, except for those who have not yet completed four months after their second dose, since they could not receive the third ahead of time.
pandemic is not over
Asked about the elimination of these sanitary measures as of this Friday, the epidemiologist of the National University (UNA), Juan José Romero, stated that the pandemic has still ended in the country, which is reflected -especially- in the number of daily hospitalizations for COVID-19.
“I do not completely agree with this decision. The pandemic for us is not over yet. Although it is true, the number of people officially registered as positive in diagnostic tests has dropped significantly – we understand that there is a great underreporting -, a not insignificant number of people continue to be admitted to the hospital daily, ”said the epidemiologist.
“We have more than 450 people still hospitalized and a number still in the ICU. The deaths have reduced a lot but they continue to exist,” added Romero, who added that it was more advisable to wait two more weeks to better observe the evolution of the pandemic.
The specialist also highlighted that there is a latent possibility of reinfections due to the Omicron BA.2 variant in the country; a situation that is already happening in other latitudes and that is mainly affecting the population without vaccines or with incomplete schedules, especially older adults and those with risk factors.
“Luckily we continue to maintain the use of masks in closed spaces. We can think that there are few circulating active cases -although there is underreporting-, but being in our dry season, as well as vaccines, help make the decision (to eliminate these restrictions) and that COVID-19 does not have a very strong effect ” , ended.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, for this Friday, April 1, a total of 831 new cases of COVID-19 were registered. In addition, 486 people were hospitalized for this pathology, of which 57 were in an ICU.
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