Major announcements were made this afternoon by President Vizcarra and the Council of Ministers.
Sunday lockdowns are over across the country, but the nightly curfews remain. The use of private vehicles on Sundays stays in effect.
“The curfew continues and remains in force, he said. “Don’t think that these measures include lifting the curfew. This measure is helping to control the spread of the disease.”
He also announced that the gradual opening of land borders will be happen soon. “We are going to start the gradual opening of the land borders,” he said. “We need a close coordination that we will initiate with the regional governments of the border to establish a protocol.”
A protocol will be established by the Ministry of Health and the regional governments so that opening of land borders does not “generate a risk of contagion” of the COVID-19.
He also announced that “starting in November, the radius of international flights will be extended. We are increasing the allowed flight time to 8 hours.”
[No details were announced and no specific countries were named. That should be coming soon.]
“Passengers entering Peru must come with a negative molecular test in hand,” according to Vizcarra. “We are not going to allow, we are going to be much stricter. If someone arrives without their molecular test, we will immediately put them on a return flight.”
The President also stated that “another topic discussed is that religious entities will be able to open their premises to receive the faithful and the public from November onwards, but with a maximum capacity of one third of their capacity.“
He also announced that “we are working and making a proposal to be considered as a definition of the use of beaches, to evaluate the gradual use of beaches…We are, to begin with, allowing the use of the beaches from Monday to Thursday, but on weekends we are only using the adjacent area.”
Vizcarra also talked about improvements with regards to the COVID situation in Peru. “At the beginning of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Health presented us with the evolution of the pandemic. The results continue to be favorable, both in terms of infections, hospitalizations and COVID patients. The number of deaths in many regions is at the level of previous years…The curve indicates that the contagion factor is less than one. The national average is 0.8.”
President Vizcarra opened his portion of the address by noting that “let’s not neglect that we must take care of our planet. In the pandemic we have used a lot of disposable products and this, in the long run, threatens the health of our planet.”
He noted that “”our economy is improving month by month. The GDP is increasingly higher than the previous month. In the last month of August, the fall is in single digits. The information that the MEF has given us is that in October, for the first time, public investment will be positive…There are programs like Arranca Peru that reach the most remote places, with investments of millions. And that is generating jobs.”
The government will continue to emphasize the digitalization of the government and Peruvian society to bring the country into the 21st century.
Programs to make up for the gaps that have occurred in education are being prepared now.
There will be a renewed emphasize to bring technology to the masses and to “to encourage the culture of innovation.”
Vizcarra added that “Digital issues have become evident in actions that we as a government have had to take in the pandemic. We have had to attend economically to the most vulnerable families. If we had all the households banking, it would be a very simple government action. But you can’t, because most of them don’t have a bankable system.”
Great! So proud of Perú!
So can the public drive private cars on Sundays? Or will it stay as is with only taxis and buses allowed on Sundays?
No private vehicles allowed on Sundays.
If I fly to the U.S. and the flight is more than 8 hours, but with the first stop less than 8 hours, will that be acceptable? Going to buy a ticket soon.
As I understand the rules, there will be NO flights over 8 hours to take. Only those cities reported will be allowed as of now.