Coronavirus in Argentina │ What requirements must cities with less than 500 thousand inhabitants meet to have exceptions in the quarantine

In the announcement of the extension of the quarantine until May 10, President Alberto Fernández indicated that the governors may dispose exceptions to compliance with isolation in cities with less than 500 thousand inhabitants, but for that they must meet five conditions.

Among them, that the doubling time of cases is not less than 15 days, and indicated that the provincial authorities should “keep the national government permanently informed.”

The president specified that in large urban conglomerates with more than 500,000 inhabitants – such as the City of Buenos Aires, Greater Buenos Aires, Rosario, Córdoba, Tucumán and Santa Fe- “the quarantine will continue as before”.

Meanwhile, in the rest the opening will be under certain norms that will be defined by the provinces, according to protocols and with permanent monitoring by the national government.

The five conditions that necessarily they have to happen simultaneously, so that the governors can advance in that sense are:

1) Duplication time of confirmed cases less than fifteen days.

2) Health system with adequate capacity to give an answer.

3) Positive evaluation of the health authorities regarding socio-sanitary risk in relation to population density.

4) The percentage of the population exempt from isolation measures may not exceed 50% of the total population of the department or party.

5) The geographical area it cannot be defined as “with local transmission or by conglomerate” by the national health authority.

“If the five requirements are met, what the provincial authority can do is enable the return to the activity with the appropriate protocols. From there they have to keep the national government informed of how the cases evolve and, if at any time the numbers spill over and any of these demands cease to exist, we are going to back down with the provincial decision and demand that it return to the previous period of the administered quarantine, “said Fernández. .