When state jurisdictions lift coronavirus mitigation measures as early as May 18, Mexico City will not likely be among them.
There are no plans to begin reopening the economy on June 1 as previously thought, according to Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
“Not yet. We’re going to make an announcement. We’re getting a plan ready,” she said at President López Obrador’s Thursday morning news conference.
The federal government released a color-coded, three-phase reopening plan on Wednesday. The first phase will begin as soon as May 18 for some areas, but the hard-hit capital is not ready for such a move.
Sheinbaum said her administration is still working on a plan to bring the city into what the federal government has termed “the new normal” despite Thursday’s leak of a government document detailing reopenings scheduled for June 15. The document also outlines school reopenings in August and September.
The city’s public relations department said the document was merely a draft that was presented with others to Sheinbaum as a possible plan for reopening.
The document proposed a reopening of businesses at a third of their normal capacity in mid-June. It would require the use of personal protective equipment, informational signage, sanitization of workspaces and transmission monitoring at those allowed to reopen.
It also proposed that churches, courts, theaters, cinemas and sporting events without spectators reinitiate services on June 15, and the reopening of corporate offices and government departments that do not serve the public directly in August.
The drafted plan stipulated that businesses including gyms, bars and nightclubs remain closed until September, but restaurants and department stores should be able to open in mid-June. The document recommends that businesses stagger their scheduling in order not to saturate public transportation.
The proposed plan also included fixed days of the week on which parks and shopping centers would be reserved exclusively for vulnerable sectors of the population.
The draft also proposes a 2,600-peso (US $107) monthly stipend to support low-income citizens.
But Sheinbaum reiterated that the document was nothing more than the result of a brainstorm and that the official plan is still in the works.
“Everything will stay the same for the time being,” she said.
Mexico City leads the country in terms of Covid-19 deaths with 1,057 as of Wednesday evening.
Source: La Jornada (sp)
