Dear Clients and Friends,
Yesterday, March 30, the General Health Council issued an Agreement declaring a health emergency due to force majeure of the epidemic generated by the SARS-CoV2 virus (COVID-19) (“Agreement”), published in the afternoon edition of the Official Gazette of the Federation.
The Agreement will be in force until April 30th and establishes that the Ministry of Health will determine all necessary actions to address such health emergency.
It is important to clarify that the government is talking about a “National Health Emergency” and not a “National Health Contingency”.
For its part, the General Health Council published on its website the following emergency measures, applicable as of yesterday
1. The suspension of non-essential activities in the public, private and social sectors until April 30, is ordered (1).
2. In the sectors determined as essential, no more than 50 people should be gathered and basic measures of hygiene, prevention and healthy distance should always be applied.
3. The entire population resident in Mexican territory is urged to comply with the co-responsibility home guard (voluntary limitation of mobility and remaining in the private home as long as possible).
4. The home guard is strictly applied to all persons over 60 years of age, pregnant women or persons suffering from chronic or autoimmune diseases (with a diagnosis of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart or lung disease, immunosuppression), regardless of whether their work activity is considered essential.
5. After April 30, the Ministry of Health, in coordination with the Ministries of Labor and Economy, will issue guidelines for the gradual and regional resumption of activities in the country.
6. All censuses and surveys involving the mobilization of people and their physical interaction will be postponed until further notice.
7. All measures shall be implemented with strict adherence to and respect for human rights.
It is important to note that the above measures do not constitute a state of emergency (restriction or suspension of the exercise of rights and guarantees) or involve a curfew. And we have to wait for their publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation to determine their legal scope.
In addition, the General Health Council requested the federal government agencies and the three levels of government, within the sphere of their competence, to support the declaration of an emergency by means of the following measures:
1. The Ministry of the Interior, to maintain constant communication and liaison with the powers of the Union and the governments of the federal states, as well as the representatives of civil society and, together with the General Coordination of Social Communication and Spokesperson of the Presidency of the Republic, the media, to promote compliance with the measures described in the declaration of emergency. Likewise, the National Institute of Immigration shall take the necessary health precautions at ports, airports and land entry points into the national territory to comply with the provisions of the declaration of health emergency;
2. To the Ministries of Finance and Public Credit, Economy, Labor, IMSS, Issste and Infonavit, as appropriate, to operate the necessary measures to protect companies and workers during the validity of the declaration establishing permanent communication with their representations;
3. To the Ministries of Finance and Public Credit, Economy, Agriculture and Rural Development, to meet with the productive sectors that participate in the distribution of the basic food basket in order to carry out effective actions that guarantee supply to the entire population;
4. To the Ministries of Welfare, Labor and Social Welfare, and those agencies that have powers in the matter, for the implementation of social support decisions agreed by the President of the Republic;
5. The Ministries of Security and Citizen Protection, National Defence, the Mexican Navy and the National Guard to take measures to guarantee the security of individuals and society in accordance with their respective powers, as well as to protect and safeguard strategic installations and public communication networks, always ensuring due respect for human rights;
6. To the Ministries of Finance and Public Credit, Economy, Health, Public Service, IMSS, Insabi, Issste, to resolve the needs of human resources, equipment, medical devices and medicines that are necessary to ensure timely and sufficient care to those who require medical attention in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic;
7. The Ministry of Public Education, Conacyt and public and private education centres, to meet to coordinate their immediate contribution to the analysis and research tasks that will help to address the pandemic;
8. To the Ministry of Communications and Transport, for the implementation of the provisions of this declaration with regard to flights, entries and exits from airports and ports, in coordination with the Ministry of the Navy of Mexico;
9. The Ministry of Public Function will accompany the procurement processes necessary to address the temporary emergency; and10. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will do what is necessary to protect Mexicans abroad, and will support the health sector, Insabi, IMSS and Issste to facilitate the supply and provision of medical supplies to meet the Covid-19.
(1) The following are considered as essential activities:
a. Those that are directly necessary to attend to the health emergency, such as the work activities of the medical, paramedical, administrative and support branches in the entire health sector, both public and private. These include the pharmaceutical sector, both in production and distribution (pharmacies); the manufacture of inputs, medical equipment and technologies for health care, as well as those involved in the proper disposal of biohazardous and infectious waste (BHW), and the cleaning and sanitation of medical units at different levels of care.
b. Those involved in public safety and citizen protection; in the defense of national integrity and sovereignty; the procurement and delivery of justice, as well as legislative activity at the federal and state levels.
c. Those sectors considered essential for the fundamental functioning of the economy: financial, tax collection, distribution and sale of energy, gas stations and gas, generation and distribution of drinking water, food and non-alcoholic beverage industry, food markets, supermarkets, self-service stores, grocery stores and sale of prepared foods; passenger and cargo transportation services; agricultural, fishing and livestock production, agro-industry, chemicals, cleaning products; hardware stores, courier services, guards in private security work; day care centres and children’s homes, nursing homes and homes for the elderly, shelters and care centres for women victims of violence and their children; telecommunications and the media, private emergency services, funeral and burial services, storage and cold chain services for essential inputs, logistics (airports, ports and railways), and activities whose suspension may have irreversible effects on their continuation.
d. The operation of government social programs.
e. The conservation and maintenance of critical infrastructure that ensures the production and distribution of indispensable services such as: drinking water, electric power, gas, oil, gasoline, turbosine, basic sanitation, public transportation, first level hospital and medical infrastructure, among others that could be defined under this category.
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