The College of Physicians and Surgeons announced this Sunday that the elimination of the mandatory use of masks and vaccination against COVID-19announced by President Rodrigo Chaves Robles, are inopportune at a time when the country is registering a rise in virus infection statistics.
Through a press release, the College authorities indicated that both measures at the time contributed to reduce the impact of infections or severity of the disease.
“We are aware that the population is tired of the use of masks and despite the fact that there is a higher percentage of the population vaccinated, the pandemic is not over. Costa Rica is at the gates of a fifth wave, so the ideal thing would have been to wait for the behavior that this will have, before making a decision like the one that has just been communicated “said Dr. Mauricio Guardia Gutierrezpresident of the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The College of Physicians is respectful of the decisions made by the Powers of the Republic, however, it urges citizens to voluntarily maintain the use of masks and not renounce vaccination.
Presidency does not release decrees
Although it was part of the first signatures of President Chaves, the The Presidential House has refused to provide the media with the text of the signed decrees by the president, so there is complete uncertainty about the exceptions to the elimination of masks and vaccination against COVID-19.
The Minister of Communication, Patricia Navarro Molina, responded to press requests to send the signed decrees stating that “they cannot be sent yet.” Later, the Director of Communications of the new government, Armando Gomezsaid that the decrees announced by Chaves “They will be made known in due course, but as you will understand, they need to be submitted to a series of public administration procedures in order to provide you with the final version.”
However, the media noted that These indicated procedures must be carried out prior to the signature of the president and not afterso that if the documents were already signed there was no reason not to send them to report correctly.
The Minister of Communication limited herself to responding by asking for “respect” for her work and saying that they had three hours to take office, and that when the specific information on the decrees was ready, “we will send it.”
The press has requested the decree on compulsory vaccination considering that it is not the President of the Republic who defines which vaccines are mandatory in the country, but the National Commission for Vaccination and Epidemiology, a technical entity that is made up of the Minister of Health or her representative; the head of the Health Surveillance Unit of the Ministry of Health; a representative of the Costa Rican Association of Pediatrics; a representative of the Department of Child and Adolescent Health of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund; a representative of the Caja’s Infectology Department; a representative of the National Children’s Hospital and a representative of Pharmacodependency of the Fund.
The signed decree that supposedly eliminates the compulsory nature of vaccination against COVID-19 should mention the date and number of the session of the National Vaccination Commission in which that measure was adopted.
The Presidency has also not released the decree that allegedly declared a “state of emergency” due to cyberattacks on Costa Rican government institutions.so that it is unknown what qualifications the Executive will have from that declaration and the legal basis that was used to issue it.
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