Last Sunday, President Sebastián Piñera announced the “Mobility Pass”, a permit that benefits those who have received both doses of Covid-19 vaccines, in order to travel more freely between communes and regions in Phase 2.
By using this pass, they will continue to govern sanitary measures such as the use of masks, frequent hand washing as well as maintaining the permitted capacity in enclosed enclosures.
The measure has generated various reactions, with some being in favour and others rejecting it. For the president of the Federation of Tourism Companies of Chile (Fedetur), Ricardo Margulis, the tourism sector values that the government has decided to implement the mobility pass, as it will grant greater freedom of movement to Chileans, which in turn will allow tourism to begin to reactivate within the national territory.
“It is a measure that has been very insistently requested from the government, as it is the way in which we will be able to function again and stand up. This is a small light of hope to begin to emerge from the dark and long tunnel in which the ruble is located since the pandemic arrived in Chile,” says Margulis.
The trade union representative said that the tourism industry was prepared to ensure safe tourism for both Chileans and foreign visitors, so the mobility card would allow travel to be resurrected again. “What we need now is also needed to reopen borders as soon as possible, so that receptive and emissive tourism is activated, as well as it is essential that it is reduced and progress is made in ending the curfew, so that the gastronomic sector can return to greater normality in its operation,” he says.
Colmed: “It’s not the time”
However, the Medical College strongly rejects the Mobility Pass, as in recent weeks there has been an increase in active cases of Covid-19, so they consider the measure premature.
The president of the Medical College of Santiago, Francisca Crispi, argues that giving a Mobility Pass in this epidemiological situation is a mistake. “We maintained an increase in cases 14 days ago. There is also a hospital occupation of critical beds over 300% of baseline capacity, which in practice means a collapse, and we have maintained an average of nearly 100 deaths daily in recent weeks. In this situation, implementing a mobility pass that increases mobility while becoming falsely safe in the vaccinated population is a measure that should not be implemented at this time, and should be postponed to when we have a better epidemiological situation and cases, hospital occupation and Covid-19 deaths have decreased,” he says.
In addition, the interim doctor of the Hospital Sotero del Río, Juan Carlos Said, is also critical of this permit, so he declared to 24 Hours that it is necessary to “wait 80% of vaccinated and less viral circulation”.
Minister-General of Government Jaime Bellolio commented that “more than 7.5 million people have already been vaccinated with both doses and this permit is done with them in mind,” calling for responsible use of the pass, which “does not give benefits, but exempts from certain restrictions people who have completed their vaccination”.
On the other hand, the Undersecretary of Tourism, José Luis Uriarte explains that this Mobility Pass allows to carry out some specific activities, such as shopping, sports in open spaces or traveling to communes since Phase 2; but it does not modify the measures of the Step-by-Step Plan in terms of the operation of commercial premises, the realization of events or established capacity.
“This is an alternative that must be exercised with responsibility, respecting the indications of the health authority and maintaining self-care measures, such as the use of mask, physical estating and permanent hand washing,” clarifies the undersecretary.
“The mobility pass doesn’t mean people will have “free chipe.” These are a small number of activities that are released and which, of course, maintain all measures of care for the contagion of Covid-19. If we are respectful of the indications of the health authority, the actions allowed by this pass do not pose an increased risk to people’s health,” Uriarte reiterates.
The Pr Mobility Passpreviously obtained by the government, it will start governing from this Wednesday, May 25 and that, by means of a unique QR code, it can be confirmed that the person has completed the inoculation process, from 14 days after his second dose of the Pfizer, Sinovac, AstraZeneca vaccines, and after 14 days of the only dose of the CanSino vaccine. And for those over 70, they will be able to show their vaccination card plus their ID card without the need to carry out the digital process.
