Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel referred to the government’s health measures to address this coronavirus pandemic. In this regard, he indicated that they were backed by scientific data, so he called on citizens to trust their decisions.
“It’s the data that has to govern the health decisions that are being made,” he said in a 24-hour interview. However, he also stated that all the data “must be taken with caution and prudence. No one can determine the success of the measures we are taking.”
In that sense, and to improve the degree of success of the measures, he called on people to be responsible for their health and that of others. “I think we all have to have a lot of responsibility. There are two central elements to address this pandemic: the first is unity and that is why the Social Table that we have is very important to generate a voice and a unitary strategy. And secondly the responsibility. There may be many voices, but we have to square up behind the Ministry of Health, the health authority, the recommendations. Not all disputes are valid because people’s health is at stake,” he said.
He also called for “estrangement measures, older adults not exposing themselves, quarantine compliance with, serious approaches.”
Finally, on the same subject, he stated that “we can be more and more stringent, but if people don’t take it seriously, it’s not going to work.”
Those people who don’t take it seriously have already been sanctioned. In fact, Blumel said they’ll enforce the law for everyone.
“I call people to take seriously what we’re doing. We have the police, the Armed Forces controlled, who are the ones in charge in this area when we are in a State of Catastrophe. There are fines, there are jail terms and we will use all the tools when people do not comply with the measures (…) We’re going to enforce the law… we will enforce it for all citizens and especially for the authorities and those who hold public responsibility positions,” he said.
In the same vein, he called on all authorities in public office to be accountable with their sayings and actions, as “if we make bad decisions it can cost lives.”
