Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approves new quarantine law

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Microvise crisis in El Salvador due to coronavirus 2:09

(CNN Spanish) - The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved with 56 out of 84 possible votes the Regulation for Isolation, Quarantine, Observation and Surveillance Law by covid-19.

The new regulations, approved early Tuesday morning, declare the Central American country an epidemic area subject to sanitary control to combat damage and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The Law orders the home security and empowers the security forces to locate people who violate the quarantine, transfer them to the nearest center so that within 12 hours they are evaluated by personnel from the Ministry of Health in order to establish if they present any symptoms.

From that evaluation, according to the Law, it will depend if the person is sent to a containment center or home quarantine.

According to the decree, employees from restaurants, public transportation, gas stations, security companies, the financial system, hospitals, veterinarians, farmers, the media, deputies, the Supreme Court of Justice and public employees linked to the emergency care will be able to continue working.

The Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional party (FMLN) did not vote because, according to its analysis, the Law violates fundamental rights of the population.

$ 1 billion loan

The Legislative Assembly also authorized, with 56 out of 84 possible votes, the Executive to contract a loan for US $ 1 billion, in addition to the US $ 2 billion that had already been approved.

According to deputy Carlos Reyes, from the Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) party, with this injection of money "what we are doing is giving money to the Executive so that it can pay suppliers, since the government is not receiving money in taxes either."

According to Reyes, it was a difficult decision but that his party supported because there is a commitment with the government that in 15 days will begin to enable the progressive operation of some productive sectors.

Part of the money, according to the deputies, will also be used to provide subsidies to micro, small and medium-sized company employees who have not received wages as a result of the emergency.

The FMLN party did not support the hiring of this new loan because the government has not presented a detailed report on how it will be used and they also consider that the mechanisms for grant delivery have not been effective.

Once the Executive has contracted the loan, it must request the ratification of the Assembly, which must approve it with at least 56 of the 84 votes.