Mexico begins pilot reopening program

Mexico City, May 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Mexican government began its "new normal" phase, an economic reactivation plan that includes a pilot program for more than 300 municipalities without any confirmed coronavirus cases.

The launching of the strategy on Monday comes after four consecutive days with more than 2,000 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, taking the total to almost 50,000 confirmed cases and more than 5,000 deaths in the two-and-a-half months since the pandemic hit Mexico, reports Efe news.

Although the four-phase program will start on June 1 with specifically authorized activities in each of Mexico's 32 states, the federal government for now will allow "municipalities of hope" to begin reopening, that designation being used for zones where no coronavirus cases have been detected and which do not border on other territories where cases have been identified.

Of the 324 municipalities included in the original plan, 213 of them are in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Among those towns is Ejutla de Crespo, 50 km from the capital of Oaxaca city, where municipal authorities allowed businesses to reopen on the city squares and at markets, these activities constituting the main economic pursuits of the town's more than 7,000 residents.

Despite the fact that the state is one of those least-affected by the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Alejandro Murat said in a recent video that the region was now in the "yellow phase" and would go through it gradually until things are completely reactivated, although school classes have not actually resumed yet.

When the plan was announced on May 13, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that it would be "voluntary," and - if local authorities decided on a different course - there would be no reprisals by Mexico City.

And so far that is the case, with several states taking different tacks on Monday.

For instance, the western state of Jalisco, one of Mexico's economic engines, implemented its own "Phase Zero" plan, delaying any reactivation until June 1.

In contrast, the neighboring state of Aguascalientes did fully reopen on Monday, except the schools are remaining closed for the time being.

The partial launching of the "new normal" doesn't mean that the rest of Mexico's towns and cities can stop adhering to social distancing measures decreed in late March, which prohibit non-essential activities up until May 30, public health expert Samuel Gonzalez, with the Mexico Responde COVID-19 group, told Efe news

Lopez Obrador announced at his Monday morning press conference that the government is beginning the procedures to authorize protocols whereby automakers, construction and mining companies can gradually reopen.

Source: IANS