QCOSTARICA – Starting tomorrow, Monday, February 8, the daytime vehicular restrictions will cease to apply throughout the country and only in the city of San Jose.
From 5:00 am to 10:00 pm, from Monday to Friday, will only be governed by the last number of plates to circulate within the Circunvalación (ring) in San José. In other words, the measure applied by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) before the pandemic.
Only for San Jose city, the prohibition is maintained on Mondays for vehicles with license plates ending in 1 and 2, Tuesday 3 and 4, Wednesday 5 and 6, Thursday 7 and 9 and Fridays 9 and 0.
On weekends, only vehicles with even ending license plates (0, 2, 4, 6, and 8) can circulate on Saturdays and odds (1, 3, 5, 7, and 9) on Sundays. The weekend restrictions are from 5:00 am to 10:00 pm and apply throughout the country.
The nighttime restrictions, from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am every day, will continue to apply throughout the country for ALL vehicles, save those in the official exemptions list published by Casa Presidencial.
The fine for violating the vehicular restrictions is ¢107,000 colones plus costs. The traffic police (Policia de Transito) is no longer seizing license plates and/or vehicles and issuing points on the driver’s license for the violation of the vehicular restrictions. But, those sanctions could be applied to other types of violations, such as speeding, careless driving, not having the Marchamo or Riteve current.
The sanitary vehicle restriction have been in force since March 24, 2020, after the Government decreed a state of national emergency due to coronavirus pandemic that has accumulated (as of Friday, February 5, 2021) 196,438 confirmed cases and 2,672 associated deaths.
The first case of covid-19 in Costa Rica was confirmed on March 6, 2020, when two American tourists tested positive after arriving in the country.
