The City and the Province debate: Can you return to phase 2 of the quarantine?

Pablo Ibáñez

06/01/2020 - 20:08

• Clarín.com
• Politics

Can you go back to phase 2 of quarantine? The question circulated all Monday and spiced up the pre-meeting that began at 19.10 at the Casa Rosada between national, Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires officials to define how rigidly the social isolation will continue beyond June 7 .

With nuances between what they analyze in the City and in the Province, and a  menu that goes from returning to phase 2 to allow new openings for more items of trade , the Government began the round of consultations with the ministers of Health, Safety, Transportation and Heads of Cabinet of the two districts.

To avoid another dispute between Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Axel Kicillof, such as the one that occurred before the last extension, the Nation launched tripartite talks to evaluate scenarios and data.

Santiago Cafiero together with Ginés González García and Eduardo "Wado" De Pedro led a summit with the heads of the Cabinet and Ministers of Health of the Province and the City of Buenos Aires: Carlos Bianco, Felipe Miguel, Daniel Gollán and Fernán Quirós are meeting from 19.10 in the Casa Rosada Women's Salon.

As Clarín said , the Casa Rosada roadmap is simple: if the number of cases remains between 700 and 800 a day, the average figure from last week, the quarantine will remain the same or could even incorporate some easing .

In the middle of the meeting, a positive fact was revealed: the number of infections on Monday was 564.

If the rate of infection is accelerated, not only will there not be new openings, but even the possibility of backing up will appear on the scene .

From the Province, the Vice Minister of Health, Nicolás Kreplak, said it with all the letters: he spoke of returning to Phase 2. Kreplak, number two in Gollán, is in the design of the testing operations and warned that if it does not harden the quarantine there will be a critical peak of cases.

Kicillof was less extreme: he considered that this is a medical opinion and that the political decision has not been taken, but he assured that the trend is towards an increase in cases and that requires being more strict.

"The decision is not made, it is an opinion from the medical, epidemiological point of view. What it refers to is a reality, if the cases rise, we are seeing that there is more circulation of the virus, it means that we have to relapse into the service The simple rule is the higher the number of infections, the more the restrictions have to be .We have not yet made the fine evaluation, "said the governor.

Bianco, the governor's delegate at the meeting in Casa Rosada, warned that they analyze the variables and that, a priori, it would suffice to control traffic more rigorously to prevent an increase in circulation.

From CABA, Quirós maintains that progress is being made towards the peak of cases and recommends maintaining the current restrictions . There is, however, a sector of the Buenos Aires Government that asks to continue with more store openings.

In Casa Rosada, which took as a political attitude to accept Rodríguez Larreta's requests, they question that approach and are surprised by one fact: the industries of Buenos Aires are not authorized.

Last Thursday, Cafiero and the Minister of the Economy, Martín Guzmán, visited the Viamo shoe plant in Villa Lugano and learned that they were not excepted. "Our plants in the suburbs are active, the one in the City is not," the entrepreneurs explained.