News

On May 30, 2020, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved the “Special Transitory Law for Comprehensive Health and Life Care, Emergency Declaration in Relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Reopening of the Economy”, which was later vetoed by the President of the Republic. Likewise, in a duplication of regulations, on June 14, 2020, the Government of El Salvador launched Executive Decree 31 called “Health protocols to guarantee the rights to health and life of people, in the process of gradual reactivation of the economy, during the COVID-19 pandemic, applicable in the western, central and eastern areas of the Republic of El Salvador ”.

Executive Decree 31, could be declared unconstitutional like the rest of the executive decrees that were declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice. However, in the absence of regulations that support an orderly and safe reactivation, the majority of companies and the population have complied with and implemented said executive decree.

The purpose of this regulation is to develop the principles, conditions of mode, time and form, as well as the specific protocols that promote the gradual reactivation of economic, labor, administrative and social activities, both in the public and private sectors, under sanitary conditions. to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The economic reactivation has been structured in 5 Phases:

1. Transitory phase: comprising Sunday, June 14 and Monday, June 15, 2020.
2. Phase 1 – Restart of economic and social activities: from June 16 to Monday July 6, 2020.
3. Phase 2 – Expansion of production and social activities: from Tuesday July 7 to Tuesday July 21, 2020.
4. Phase 3 – New expansion of economic and social activities: comprising from Wednesday, July 22 to Wednesday, August 05, 2020.
5. Phase 4 – Approaching the new normality: which includes from Thursday, August 6 to Thursday, August 20, 2020.
6. Phase 5 – New normality: which will apply from Friday, August 21, 2020.

David Claros Flores
Associate
García & Bodán
El Salvador