On April 9, 2020, the Executive Branch issued Decree No. 3525/20 (the “Decree”) extending the preventive isolation regime due to the health emergency caused by COVID-19, until April 19, 2020. The Decree will enter into force on April 13, and therefore Decree No. 3512/20 will remain in force until April 12.
The Decree includes a number of new features with respect to its predecessor, Decree No. 3512/20, including the following:
1. Permitted activities (exceptions)
Section 2 of the Decree extends the number of exceptions to the restriction of movement from 12 to 14, including the following as activities that are permitted, of which the first 2 are reinstatements of activities previously excluded by Decree No. 3512/20:
• Activities linked to agricultural, livestock, poultry and fisheries production.
• The essential services of surveillance, cleaning and guarding.
• Activities linked to forestry production.
• The essential services of lodging.
• The particular civil works, as long as they do it using 50% of the labor force and adopting the sanitary measures ordered by the Government.
Services of vigilance, cleaning, guarding and lodging that are not essential are still excluded from the permitted activities; while, with regard to agricultural, poultry and fishing activities, the inclusion of the reference to their distribution and commercialization stage is not observed, as previously provided for in Decree No. 3478/20.
With regard to the exceptions that already exist and which continue to be in force under the Decree, some have undergone significant changes, such as:
• Media workers no longer have time restrictions on the provision of their services.
• The reference to the logistics chain for the supply of food has been extended to include pharmaceuticals, and now covers not only the marketing stage but also the production stage.
• Funeral services must be carried out in accordance with the quarantine regime.
• Public works in the urban area of the capital are no longer limited to those related to the health area.
• Provisions for public and civil works now include their logistics chain, provided that they preserve social distance.
• Delivery service is no longer limited to food products, medicines, hygiene, cleaning and other basic need inputs. The restriction schedule remains unchanged, from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., with the exception of 24-hour pharmacies.
• No mention is made of ATMs or cash transport services, and only those services declared essential by the Central Bank of Paraguay (the “BCP”) to guarantee the functioning of the financial system are mentioned.
• The logistics chain now also includes air transport (excluded by Decree 3512/20).
• The absolute restriction on movement is maintained for persons over 60 years of age and under 18 years of age, with the exception of those exercising emergency medical services or those affected by services that are essential for the community, whether they are authorities that must exercise functions that cannot be postponed, health personnel, military and police forces; or those affected by public or private health services, or by preventive and emergency maintenance of medical and hospital equipment.
All statements made and documentation used by persons during police checks carried out in the context of general preventive isolation are to be treated as sworn statements, provided that they relate to an activity that is not affected by restrictions on movement (section 2), as provided for in Decree No. 3512/20.
2. Essential services for the financial system
According to the delegation established in Section 2, paragraph 11 of the Decree to the BCP, this entity issued a statement dated April 10, 2010, which provides as follows as essential to ensure the functioning of the banking and financial system:
1. Banks and Financial Entities.
2. Electronic Payment Entities.
3. Currency Exchange offices.
4. Insurance Companies.
5. Other entities that grant credits
Likewise, the BCP also reported as essential activities those processes carried out directly by the above mentioned entities, or through other companies that provide services inherent to the banking and financial support draft, and that allow the continuity of operations and provision of services through electronic means, including telephone customer service, support to digital attention, delivery of cards that allow access to funds and any operation related to the network of Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) and TAUSERS.
3. Alternate circulation of vehicles
Section 3 of the Decree establishes that vehicles may travel in a staggered manner and depending on the completion, odd or even, of the plates, with circulation being limited as follows:
1. Plates ending with odd numbers (1, 3, 5 and 9): on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
2. Plates ending with even numbers (2, 4, 6 and 8): Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
First, the Decree provided that this measure would apply to vehicles used for economic and employment activities not subject to the driving restrictions, with the exception of public passenger and freight transport, vehicles used by the public sector and those used by inhabitants subject to driving restrictions for the minimum necessary journeys to obtain food, medicines and cleaning supplies.
However, the meaning of this measure was reversed on April 10, 2020 by Decree No. 3527/20, which established that it would apply only to vehicles used by those subject to driving restrictions for the minimum amount of time necessary to obtain food, medicines and cleaning supplies (article 1 of the Decree), and not to those used for economic and labour activities exempted from driving restrictions (article 2 of the Decree).
4. Public passenger transport
Section 5 of the Decree arranges the obligatory nature of the use of masks in the public transport of passengers and will be the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (the “MOPC”) the organization that will regulate everything related to this service, being distanced here the Decree of its predecessor (the Decree 3512/20), that designated to the National Direction of Transport (the “DINATRAN”) like the one in charge of this regulation.
It is possible to consider that, by Resolution CD No. 112 of date 18 of March of 2020, the DINATRAN prohibited indefinitely the transport of passengers stopped in the buses of Class “F1” (minibus), specifically for service of short distance, in order to prevent and to mitigate the propagation of the virus “Covid-19”.
5. Other measures
For its part, Section 7 of the Decree gave continuity to the differentiated working hours, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., of officials of public entities dependent on the Executive Branch, originally established by Decree 3451/20. These entities must operate with a minimum number of officials to guarantee the provision of services, which will be regulated by each institution.
Finally, the Executive Branch continues to urge the Legislative and Judicial Branches to take the necessary measures to accompany the provisions of the Decree. It also urges the population to use masks, but without giving any indication as to how they should be used.
To learn more about the exceptions to Decree 3512/20, we invite you to read the following news:
Alimentos – Aclaraciones sobre las excepciones a la restricción de circulación
For your best reference, below you can access the full text of the Decree and other rules mentioned:
decreto 3527_modifica art 3 del 3525
If you would like more information about the Decree, please contact Manuel Acevedo (macevedo@vouga.com.py)
Decree No. 3525/20 extends the preventive isolation regime and Decree No. 3527/20 amending it