Ban on rallies in El Salvador due to Covid-19 enters into force

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A ban on mass public and private events for 90 days, as a result of the increase in covid-19 cases, went into effect in El Salvador after its publication in the Official Gazette on Wednesday.

The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved on Tuesday night the “concentrations and public and private events”, such as “concerts, rallies, sporting events open to the public and patron saint festivals”.

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The legislative decree was published in the July 13 edition of the Official Gazette and, according to the text, became effective with its publication.

The measure states that the summoning, promotion, and organization of the prohibited concentrations will be punished with fines of between US$6,000 and US$30,000.

The measure was taken to try to counteract the increase of daily cases that the country has been registering since the beginning of June.

El Salvador reached 83,363 positive cases this weekend, of which 2,445 died and 74,388 recovered.

Daily infections went from 134 on June 1 to 241 on July 10, a figure similar to the rates computed at the end of last January.

Similar measures were declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court in 2020 for suspending, according to the different rulings, constitutional guarantees without the proper parliamentary process.

These rulings were one of the reasons, according to the ruling party, for which the Legislative Assembly removed the constitutional magistrates last May 1, an action widely questioned by the international community.