Mexico: Implications of the declaration of red traffic light status for Mexico City and The State of Mexico

The RESOLUTION through which the alert status due to COVID-19 was changed to a red traffic light was published last Friday afternoon in the Official Gazettes of Mexico City and the State of Mexico, thus ordering the temporary suspension of all non-essential activities from December 19, 2020 to January 10, 2021.

In accordance with the RESOLUTIONS, the following  are considered to be essential activities:

1. Work activities of the medical, paramedical branches, the pharmaceutic sector, cleaning and sanitizing of medical units, manufacturing of  supplies, medical equipment and technologies for health care, disposal of hazardous biological-infectious waste and solid waste management;
2. Markets, Supermarkets, Self-service stores. Provision, services and supply chains for all essential activities. Storage and cold chain services for essential supplies;
3. Food and beverage industry, preparation and sale of bread, tortilla making shops, grocery stores, mom-and-pop stores and greengrocers, laundries, dry cleaners, cleaning products stores, veterinarians and the sale of animal feed, moving and maintenance services; the sale of prepared food exclusively in the modality of take-out or home delivery;
4. Telecommunications and information media;
5. Financial and notarial services;
6. The energy sector;
7. Generation and production of drinking water;
8. Passenger and cargo transportation services;
9. Courier and e-commerce services. Postal service;
10.  Construction, mining, manufacturing and chemical industries;
11. Private security and emergency services;
12. Funeral and burial services;
13. Auto repair shops, auto-parts shops and vehicle emissions testing centers.
14. Agricultural, fishing and livestock production. Agroindustry;
15. Hotels at a maximum of 30% of their capacity and exclusively providing lodging service.
16. Other activities whose suspension implies a risk to the health, life or property of people; or whose interruption could have irreversible effects on their continued operation.

It highlights that, for Mexico City, it is established that the activities that have been deemed to be essential must strictly comply with the following measures:

1. Mandatory use of face masks, the placement of sanitary filters for the detection of symptoms and temperature measurement for the entry of personnel, suppliers and clients, keeping a healthy distance of 1.5 meters between people, constantly disinfecting surfaces and objects, equipping for and defining the direction of the flow of people for entering and exiting, placing 70% alcohol antibacterial gel dispensers and favoring natural ventilation.
2. Commercial establishments whose activity is considered to be essential and have an on-site staff on 100 people or more in each work center must carry out, at their expense and on a bi-weekly basis, rapid antigen tests or, otherwise, RT-PCR polymerase chain reaction tests for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which will have to be conducted at clinical laboratories or facilities authorized to perform COVID-19 tests in Mexico City, for a minimum of 10% of the total of the staff, either individually or in groups.
3. Implementing the “QR System for the identification of Closed Spaces”; and
4. Daily measurement of employees’ temperature. In the event of temperatures above 37.5° C, the employee, as well as those  whom he had close contact with, must be quarantined for 15 days of home confinement, and the authorities of Mexico City must be notified immediately through the Telephone Localization Public Service (LOCATEL) or through the available digital tools (SMS, website), in order for the  authority to monitor the situation and dictate the necessary measures to be taken by the establishment to contain and control contagions.

In the case of this last provision, we recommend that, despite the abovementioned RESOLUTION, the best option is to ask the worker with fever to go to the Mexican Social Security Institute to be examined by a specialist and, if necessary, receive a disability due to illness from the Institute.

The Authorities have announced a series of verifications and inspections to ensure compliance with these measures and, therefore, if You so require during this period, we are ready to provide you with our services at this time in which we know that we must be more available than ever to assist you.

For more information on these articles or any other issues involving labour and employment matters in Mexico, please contact Oscar De La Vega (Partner) of De La Vega & Martinez Rojas S.C. at odelavega@dlvmr.com.mx or visit www.dlvmr.com.mx.