Zenaida Amador (ALN) .- Given the forthcoming expiration of the state of alarm decree, which has kept Venezuela in general paralysis since March 13 as a measure to contain the expansion of Covid-19, authorities are expected to announce a relaxation of the quarantine. However, there are a number of factors, beyond the disease, that seem to be weighing on this decision. As Nicolás Maduro said this weekend, a group of experts advising him on managing the pandemic recommended that he "radicalize" the quarantine.
The comment fell like cold water in the country, since the imposed economic paralysis hits a productive apparatus that was already in recession and exacerbates the impoverishment of the po[CENSORED]tion. Various sectors, especially in the commercial area, have made public their determination to move towards flexibility that allows them to operate, either on limited hours and under strict rules that guarantee social isolation. Shopping centers, for example, are those that have been lobbying to allow them to reopen their doors, since the businesses that operate there are at risk, as well as the jobs that are generated These pressures led Tareck El Aissami, Vice President of the Economic Area and Minister of Petroleum of Maduro, to indicate that health protocols were being studied to apply them in sectors that had remained inactive during the quarantine, since the idea is to progressively move towards a “normalization relative and monitored ”.
He even explained that "different commercial activities were being segmented to determine the protocols for different types of them" and "some alternatives by time bands for some businesses" were being evaluated. Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's executive vice president, also spoke in this regard, stating that they had prepared an "epidemiological traffic light with territorial characteristics, with the incidence of cases", which could open the scope for a new stage of quarantine. But Maduro, far from following this line and feeding the idea of flexibilization, said that the quarantine must continue and that this Monday it will launch a national survey, through the homeland platform, so that Venezuelans answer a questionnaire that will help define this new stage of coronavirus care. But what elements weigh on the decision to relax the quarantine?