(QCOSTARICA) Less than 7 hours after the mayor of Garabito, Tobías Murillo, voiced his annoyance at maintaining his canton on orange alert, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) declared Garabito on a yellow alert.
The canton of Garabito takes in the beaches of Jaco, Herradura and Hermosa (among others) and destinations such as Punta Leona, Tarcoles and Carara national park, in the Central Pacific.
“This afternoon, at a press conference on the alerts issued in the context of the emergency by COVID-19, it was omitted to indicate the passage of the cantons of El Guarco and Garabito to a yellow alert,” the CNE reported in this regard.
The CNE indicated that when “raising the list of the total cantons on alert, El Guarco and Garabito were omitted. They both lowered their alertness. It is a material omission”.
Murillo threatened to rise up together with the citizens of the area against sanitary measures and the declaration issued Friday afternoon at government conferences.
“To all the media in this country and the country in general, we want to express our disagreement with the measures that the Ministry of Health has taken in declaring ourselves an orange zone. What do they want? Lead us to ruin, lead us to bankruptcy? We were the first canton to close the beaches and we are also going to be the first canton to rise up. If they want war, we will have war, because it cannot be that they continue to charge us,” Murillo said in a video.
The mayor’s complaint was against being maintained under orange alert cantons, which would put the canton at a disadvantage compared to the other tourist attraction sites, such as Quepos and Guanacaste.
The Ministry of Health reports only 2 active cases of COVID-19 in Garabito, as well as 29 recovered.