With hospital beds filling up due to the rising number of confirmed coronavirus cases, Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal announced a return to coronavirus restrictions yesterday to help prevent the spread of the disease and avoid a collapse of the state’s health care system.

As of Tuesday night, the dry law has been reinstated and the sale of alcohol is banned throughout Yucatán. 

Beginning Thursday, residents are asked to stay off the roads from 10:30 p.m. until 5 a.m. In coastal communities, the curfew will take effect at 9 p.m.

Non-essential businesses must close by 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and are not permitted to open on the weekends.

Restaurants are required to close at 10 p.m. and can only offer take-out and delivery meals on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Marinas have been closed and recreational boating is prohibited.

More restrictions may be put in place if coronavirus numbers don’t show improvement, the governor warned. “We do not rule out additional measures in the coming days.”

The number of patients with the coronavirus is straining hospitals to the breaking point, and two temporary hospitals have been set up. 

One is located in the Mérida convention center with 490 beds, and a 100-bed hospital has been erected on land belonging to the general hospital in Valladolid. The governor is asking 3,000 health workers deemed to be at high risk for the coronavirus due to preexisting conditions to return to work. 

Vila warned that by setting up the provisional hospitals, reserves are simply running out.

“The launch of these two temporary hospitals means that we are already using our strategic reserve of beds and equipment planned with due anticipation in the face of the coronavirus contingency,” he said.

“It will not be possible to enable more beds since Yucatán medical personnel are already working practically in their entirety,” he warned, calling on citizens to take the pandemic seriously.

“Many have confused economic reactivation with the reactivation of their social life. If at this time social life is not minimized, we will be forced to close all non-essential businesses and everyone will return to quarantine in their homes,” he cautioned.

“This is a very important moment in the evolution of the contingency because it tests our social and individual responsibility. Acting irresponsibly can have deadly consequences.” 

As of Tuesday, Yucatán had 6,584 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and had seen 604 deaths.

Source: Reforma (sp), Diario de Yucatán (sp)