QCOSTARICA – One day before the deadline to contest the precautionary measure that suspended the requirement of the QR code promoted by the Government, President Carlos Alvarado was sure of its application.
The president said that he will appeal the measure and that they continue to trust the measure.
“We are not going to give up on having a vaccination certification mechanism. Fortunately, our levels (of vaccination) are high, but that does not mean that it does not rule out that we could have another outbreak, another wave,” he declared.
Regarding the questioning of the vaccination certificate model, he insisted that it is the same model that is used abroad.
“All of Europe has the use of the QR as its standard of protection, it is not something that here between Daniel (Salas, Minister of Health) and I made up, we are using an international standard of protection,” he said.
Alvarado added that 450,000 people are still unvaccinated.
QR in the hands of business
According to the interpretation made by the Government, the Court froze the QR only mandated by the Government, but businesses could demand it without a problem.
Alvarado added that, in his opinion, the suspension rather brings uncertainty and contravenes the “progressiveness” with which the Government wanted to allow the establishments to operate.
To stop the possible economic damage that the mandatory QR code would generate, a group of businessmen requested an exceptional precautionary measure last Tuesday.
The Contentious Administrative Court agreed with them, ordering a temporary suspension of the Government’s role out of the QR code verification system on December 1 on a voluntary basis and mandatory starting January 8, 2022.
“The President of the Republic, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Science and Technology, the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) are ordered to refrain from carrying out any conduct aimed at implementing the QR code, at a commercial, social, labor, tourist level. , recreational or any other,” says the court order.
The tourism sector estimates that the announcements of the Executive Branch to institute a QR code verification have generated losses of US$400 million to the sector, mainly in canceled reservations from tourists.
On Thursday, President Alvarado explained that the court order applies only to the QR code, but not the capacity (aforo in Spanish) regulations.
In that respect, Alvarado called on businesses to voluntarily adopt the QR code with the benefit of obtaining 100% capacity, which has been expanded to more activities, susch as sports, theaters and others. Read the full report here.
On Friday, the Deportivo Saprissa soccer club, despite the government’s call, announced that it will not QR code fans and maintain its capacity for today’s game (Saturday) against Sporting, at 15% capacity.
