MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine President Fernández extends current covid-19 restrictions until May 21

“The teaching of classes will be held exclusively remotely” in areas labeled as of “epidemiological and sanitary alarm,” said Fernández.

Argentine President Alberto Fernández Friday announced the current restriction on the circulation of people in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) was being extended until May 21.

Among those restrictions was on-site schooling but Buenos Aires City (CABA) Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta has disregarded them since the previous decree and it is now up to the Supreme Court, which has claimed original jurisdiction, to decide on the matter.

On the other hand, municipalities in the province of Buenos Aires and within AMBA have observed the presidential measures.

In a move to avoid future conflicts and to wipe away criticism that he is running the country employing emergency decrees which are meant for when Congress is not in session, Fernández also announced during his 19-minute pre-recorded message that he would be sending a bill setting the scientific criteria under which restrictions can be imposed.

“The situation is by no means resolved; the number of cases is really very high. The epidemiological situation in the AMBA is critical and we have other areas with high sanitary tension,” said Fernández, who detailed there were four types of areas in the country based on how critical the coronavirus pandemic was in each of them.

The President also downplayed comments implying these measures had a political purpose and stressed that he was driven only by health, people's lives and the economy of families.

Based on the “evidence” provided by specialists, “areas of low, medium and high epidemiological and sanitary risk” are demarcated, to which “a fourth category” of “epidemiological and sanitary alarm” has been added, and where further restrictions might be imposed.

“The teaching of classes will be held exclusively remotely” in those areas, Fernández explained. But face-to-face schooling was “to resume in these areas when epidemiological and health indicators allow it.”

And regardless of how reluctant to use the expression “curfew” he has been, Fernández insisted circulation shall not be allowed between 8 pm and 6 am.