‘Economic Reactivation’
Panel to decide if non-essential businesses can reopen in San Luis R.C.
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. – Restaurants, hotels and other businesses classified as non-essential are slated to find out Wednesday if they can reopen here.
The decision, to be made by the Municipal Health Council, comes after Sonora fell from maximum to high on the scale used by the federal government for monitoring the epidemiological risk posed by COVID-19.
“This week, on Wednesday, we will make a very important determination for our city concerning economic reactivation,” San Luis Rio Colorado Mayor Santos Gonzalez said in a message on Facebook. “It’s not only one of the most important weeks for our administration but also for the social life of the city.”
Gonzalez said even if the health council decides businesses can reopen, those establishments will have to comply with restrictions placed on their operations by Mexico’s Health Ministry, among them limits on the number of employees and customers that can be on the premises at any moment.
On Friday, Sonora and 13 other Mexican states were lowered from red to orange on the scale that uses a color code to symbolize the severity of the pandemic in a locale or region.
In states and cities that fall within the red, only essential businesses and services such as grocery stores, medical offices and banks are allowed to operate. Those in the orange can decide whether to reopen their economies, albeit with restrictions. Limits are further lifted as they drop into the yellow and finally into the green, at which time all activities, including classroom education, can resume.
On Sunday, Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich said her administration would proceed as if the state were still in the red, but said she would leave it to the cities to decide whether local businesses could reopen.
An orange ranking allows a non-essential business to operate with 30% of its workforce on the premises and with limited capacity for customers.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalized patients in a city or state determine the color assigned to it.
From July 12 to 19, the number of confirmed cases in Sonora climbed from 12,630 to 15,112. The number of people hospitalized statewide during the same period went from 1,156 to 1,466.
Since the first coronavirus case appeared in San Luis Rio Colorado in late March, there have been 1,100 cases and 155 COVID-19-related deaths recorded in the city. Health officials report the number of people hospitalized throughout the state but not in individual cities.
Gonzalez urged residents not to get complacent now that the state’s ranking has been lowered one level on the color scale.
“This is not to say that we are not a risk. We are at high risk, and we all have to do our part. We don’t want there to be an upsurge. We have to (reopen) with a lot of responsibility and with the cooperation of everyone.”
An orange rating allows theaters, museums and cultural center to open at 25% capacity, while gyms, pools and athletic centers can operate at 50% capacity.
Baja California also was lowered to orange on Friday, but the state health ministry decided to keep non-essential businesses closed this week.
Baja on Sunday reported 11,928 confirmed cases among its residents and 2,348 coronavirusrelated deaths since the start of the pandemic.