To date, there are no new restrictions in El Salvador, other than a ban on flights from the UK and South Africa.
The new strain of coronavirus that mainly affects England has triggered global alarms in the face of a new possible wave of infections. The fact that this new strain is spreading faster has led even more countries to restrict the entry of people from that European country.
Health Minister Francisco Alabí said on Monday that the increase in daily infections was due to agglutinations taking place in different municipalities for holidays, Christmas shopping and the end of the year.
With the new strain of the virus, each infected person could transmit the virus to another 10, according to the minister.
Faced with such a picture of health, the official said on Tuesday, in a television interview on Channel 21, that “he would not want the population to go through the situation that has already been experienced again.”
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In this regard, the official warned that if the number of cases increases or there is a risk of the new strain entering, the closure of El Salvador airport “could be one of the tools to limit contagion”.
“If we manage to delay the timely arrival of a new strain of coronavirus, measures can be implemented to prevent the damage to the population, which is particularly vulnerable.” the minister claimed.
For now, El Salvador has banned entry of people whose flight itinerary has included the United Kingdom or South Africa in the last 30 days, as the government announced last Sunday.
Likewise, the Salvadoran government has recommended to all Salvadorans who are in Europe and intend to enter the country in the coming weeks, to speed up their process.
“Salvadorans in Europe who want to return to El Salvador in the coming weeks are advised to speed up their travel itineraries as much as possible before the new restrictions are imposed by the new coronavirus strain,” he said. President Bukele.
Measures that violate the Constitution
Without underestimating the dangers of a new strain of COVID-19, two prominent constitutional lawyers reminded Nayib Bukele’s government that the constitution forbids it from preventing Salvadorans from entering. The same thing was already banned by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court in September last year by a ruling.
Health Minister: With the new strain, each infected person could transmit the virus to another 10
Lawyers Rubén Zamora and Enrique Anaya do not hesitate to point out that President Bukele cannot finally leave Salvadorans coming from Europe stranded abroad, so he advises them to look for other legal health mechanisms.
Article 5 provides that “no Salvadoran may be expatriated, denied entry into the territory of the Republic, or denied a passport for return or other identification.”
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