Type of Intervention: Regulation, Specific Action
Sectors Involved: Health, Private Sector and Businesses, Supply Chains
Level of Jurisdiction: National
Lead People/Agency: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism
Overview: Adopt as a preventive and control sanitary measure throughout the national territory, the closure of establishments and commercial premises for recreation and entertainment; of dance; leisure and entertainment and gambling and betting such as casinos, bingo and video game terminals. The establishments and commercial premises for recreation and amusement; dance, leisure and entertainment, gambling and betting, as well as the areas destined within establishments for the consumption of alcoholic beverages, are places that favor the transmission of COVID-19 as they are spaces in which contact between people it is greater, which favors the transmission mechanisms.
The establishments and commercial premises referred to in this intervention that provide for the sale of food and beverages in their corporate purpose; They will be closed to the public and they will only be able to offer these services through electronic commerce or by home delivery for consumption outside the establishments, taking into account the sanitary measures that may be applicable.
This measure will not be applicable to services provided in hotel establishments.
Full details here: http://www.regiones.gov.co/Inicio/assets/files/62.pdf
Type of Justification: Advice of INTERNAL government advisory committee or group, Advice of EXTERNAL expert advisor or advisory committee
Source of Evidence or Justification: World Health Organisation, National – academic, National – government, International – academic
Evidence/Justification: COVID-19 behaves similarly to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronaviruses, in which the transmission mechanisms have been identified as: i) respiratory drops when coughing and sneezing, ii) indirect contact by inanimate surfaces, and iii) micro-droplet sprays, and it has been established that it has a higher contagion rate.
On March 9, 2020, the Director-General of WHO recommended, in relation to COVID-19, that countries adapt their responses to this situation according to the scenario they are in, invoked the premature adoption of measures with a goal common to all countries: stop transmission and prevent the spread of the virus, for which countries with no cases, with sporadic cases and those with grouped cases should focus on finding, testing, treating and isolating individual cases and following up on their contacts .
Before the declaration by the WHO, on March 11 of the current year, of the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic, essentially due to the speed of its spread and in order to guarantee due protection of the health of the inhabitants of the national territory, on March 12, 2020, a health emergency was declared throughout the national territory and measures are taken to deal with the virus.
That the establishments and commercial premises for leisure and fun; dance, leisure and entertainment, gambling and betting, as well as the areas destined within the establishments for the consumption of alcoholic beverages, are places that favor the transmission of COVID-19 as they are spaces in which contact between people it is greater, which favors the transmission mechanisms.
The accelerated increase in cases of COVID-19 contagion in the Colombian territory, and in the context of the health emergency, it is considered necessary to adopt as a preventive measure, taking into account the WHO recommendations.