Door to new normal begins to open – you can get a haircut, buy a car

After five months of personal and economic lockdown by presidential decree to combat the COVID-19, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday, March 11, the partial re-opening of some sectors after business groups had warned of pending apocalyptic consequences.

 Some  69 public construction projects and 15 from the private sector will restart see thousands of workers receiving their pay packets and they will be able to get a haircut or buy a car from Monday, August 17.

But for the rest of the population, the quarantine rules remain in place with a two-hour window depending on sex and ID card and total lockdown will continue on Saturday and Sunday.

Currently, some 70,000 workers are laid off creating a downward spiral for business and government coffers.

The retail trade will be partially activated, but shoppers will not be allowed inside stores and will have to pick up their online purchases from the parking lot, which has already been in operation in some centers. Car sales centers will re-open.

To visit a re-opened beauty salon or barbershop you must attend by appointment and the shops may not exceed 50% of their capacity. About 164 NGOs will also be allowed to open.

The announcement comes after several weeks in which the private sector warned of the destruction of the business fabric due to the prolonged operational closure, which would result in an increase in unemployment from 7% to 15%.

The Government is be betting on an economic boost through the reactivation of projects, such as the expansion of the beach corridor, design and construction of the fourth bridge over the Canal, the rehabilitation of the Bridge of the Americas, the works of the branch that connects the Metro with the Technical Institute, and the design and construction of the Sixaola bridge between Panama and Costa Rica.