São Paulo State to Impose Red Phase Restrictions on Weekends and Weekday Nights

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The State of São Paulo is expected to have stricter social isolation rules over weekends and holidays, as well as nights on working days, starting January 22nd: the plan is that the entire State will enter the red phase, the most restrictive under the São Paulo plan.

The announcement is scheduled to take place in a press conference at the Bandeirantes Palace and should include the holidays, such as next Monday, January 25th, the São Paulo capital’s anniversary. The restrictive measure will also be repeated during other weekends, day and night.

According to the new planning, after the weekends and holidays, the regions will return to the phases they were in before. In other words, those that were in the orange phase will return to the orange, for instance.

However, the new strategy also provides for the closure of bars, restaurants and all non-essential services after 8 PM, every working day from Monday to Friday, a kind of “curfew” against Covid-19. In this design, the state regions may be under one phase during the day, until 8 PM, and another, the red phase, at night.

The main goal of the measure is to prevent the public healthcare network from being compromised due to the surge of Covid-19 cases. The red phase is the most restrictive in the São Paulo Plan to tackle Covid-19: bars, restaurants, stores, parks, and malls will be closed on weekends.