El Salvador tightening restrictions for “special quarantine”

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Some of the strictest measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Americas are about to get tougher in El Salvador.

Nayib Bukele said the country is in a critical moment, so Thursday begins a “special quarantine.” Residents will only be able to leave their homes twice a week to buy food, the days determined by the number on their national identification.

“If we do all of this, we don’t go out shopping, just to break quarantine or to go to a party, we’re going to lower the (infection) curve,” the president said in an address late Tuesday. “If we don’t do it, not only will we put ourselves and our family at risk, but you’re going to infect other people who are also going to die.”

The country has already spent a month under a mandatory stay-at-home order — though without a limit on how often they could shop for groceries. Police and soldiers have arrested several thousand people for violating that order and sent them to containment centers for 30-days quarantine. The country’s Supreme Court has ruled those detentions unconstitutional, but Bukele has refused to budge.

The largest concentration of infections is in the capital, so Bukele said people will not be allowed to travel between municipalities without a letter showing they are needed for work in a municipality where they don’t live. Only banks, pharmacies, supermarkets and places selling basic grains will be allowed to open.

The tightening of measures is in contrast to neighboring Guatemala where a gradual re-opening began this week, including shopping malls. Bukele has taken a dramatically different approach from nearby Nicaragua where social distancing measures were not implemented and the government has continued promoting mass gatherings.

El Salvador has reported more than 500 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 14 deaths.

Polls last month showed overwhelming approval for Bukele’s tough measures against the virus. He closed the countries borders and airports in March to slow the importation of the virus.