NEW COVID VARIANT COMES WITH NEW RESTRICTIONS

Costa Rican Government strengthens preventive measures

As the new COVID Variant (Omicron) has been discovered in the country, the cases of contagion by it are rising every day. Due to this variant causing up to 5 more times the number of cases in countries around Europe and North America, Costa Rica wants to take measures before it gets to a point where it cannot be controlled anymore. Therefore, new measures are being implemented since Tuesday January 11^th, 2022, and following we explain how these will work out:

DRIVING RESTRICTIONS

1. San José Restrictions
   • The driving restrictions per plates during the day will still apply only to the Ring Road (“anillo de circunvalación”) in San José, and they will give the chance for people to drive four (4) out of five (5) weekdays.
   • As follows the detailed list of plates that CANNOT circulate per day in this designated area:

• • • Monday: 1 and 2.
    • Tuesday: 3 and 4.
    • Wednesday: 5 and 6.
    • Thursday: 7 and 8.
    • Friday: 9 and 0

2. Whole Country Restrictions (this includes San José) 

• • The nighttime driving ban will be switched for the whole country, to: Monday through Sunday, from 10:00 a.m.  to 5:00 a.m.
  • The restrictions by plates on the weekends is still completely eliminated for the whole country.
  • All activities/businesses shall continue with the designated reduced capacity, and a new schedule of 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

A list of exceptions is still established (you can reach out to us here for the complete list). As follows our summary of the driving restrictions for you:

Suspension of massive events with public presence

From January 11^th to the 23^rd, all cultural and sports events happening will not be allowed to have any public presence, otherwise those will be suspended. This does not include cinemas, academic activities, theaters, and cult spaces, as these can keep functioning with the right sanitary protocols.

Bus services

The capacity of people allowed standing on the buses, will be a maximum of 20 standing people from January 11^th to the 23^rd.

Intensification of operations

The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Public Security will intensify the supervision of control of compliance with sanitary protocols and applicable gauges. Operations will also be carried out to control compliance with the sanitary vehicle restriction.

 Vaccination

 Costa Rica has received a shipment with more vaccines, and starting January 11^th, the vaccination process for the kids from 5 to 11 years old will start in the whole country. The first kids to be vaccinated will be from ages 11 and 12. Additionally, from this, the third dose of the vaccine will start being applied to all of those older than 58 years old.

Authorities have also made a call to those who have not been vaccinated, to encourage them to get their full vaccination scheme complete.

Self-Tests

Since December 24^th, 2021, the general guidelines for the use of screening self-tests for COVID-19 have already been in force, which provides the procedure and requirements for requesting the import authorization of self-tests.

As of today, two authorizations for the importation of COVID-19 self-tests by private companies have been issued. It is important to indicate that in case of testing positive, the person must remain isolated and get verified with a PCR test.

Remote Working

Remote Working in public institutions is maintained under the basic operating plan, except for essential services, customer service offices, regional offices and emergency care. A call and exhortation are made to the private sector to apply working from home measures as far as possible due to the current contagion scenario.

Immigration Measures

Immigration Authorities are also preparing special measures to fight the contagion. We will be publishing a separate article on this specific matter shortly.

For any further information and the complete list of restrictions and measures, please feel free to send us an e-mail at contact@cribo.cr.

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