Friends:
The stay at home orders instated during the pandemic help us to prevent the spread of the virus and save lives, reducing the tragedy felt by affected family members and loved ones.
But staying at home and closing businesses and companies has also taken a toll on economic activity, thousands of jobs were lost and income was reduced for the vast majority of families from Quintana Roo.
The pandemic also caused us to alter our social culture – suddenly we could no longer be with our loved ones, we could no longer see our friends, but thanks to the participation of each and every one of you, we managed to reduce the spread of the virus and decrease the fatality rate.
As a team, we were recognized nationally for our efforts to stay home and save lives. We managed to increase the installed COVID capacity in hospitals by more than 500%. This improvement in conditions allows us to begin the gradual opening of economic and social life.
We designed a complementary monitoring method similar to the national traffic light system that helped us advanced in our goals and achieve a color orange status.
But in a short period of time, we have reached critical point were our work is at risk of being undone and the threat of increased hospitalizations and deaths looms large.
Many Quintana Roo residents have become distracted and neglected basic preventative measures including wearing a facemask, keeping a healthy distance and frequently washing hands. These dangerous actions pose a risk to others around you including your family, your co-workers and your clients.
We have noticed that many are no longer keeping a healthy distance, crowding transportation hubs, banks and supermarkets, malls and others are and about without a mask.
This irresponsible behavior from a select few will cause us all to go into lock down again, putting a pause to the gradual and orderly reactivation.
We cannot and we will not allow this behavior.
If necessary, we will re-impose drastic measures to ensure our gradual, orderly and responsible reopening can continue.
We have two main goals: protect the health of our community and reactivate the economy. This is only possible with the responsible and orderly participation of all people. We must definitively adopt a civic attitude where the conduct of each of us is focused on contributing to the proper functioning of society and to the well-being of other members of the community. We must care for ourselves, but also our families and our neighbors.
This new civility requires adopting habits that allow us to live as safely as possible during the pandemic.
Don Benito Juárez pointed out that the best way for a nation to combat and remedy a great disease is through the civic conduct of its people – fight evil with new habits.
Today’s evil comes in the form of a pandemic that changed our way of life and threatens us permanently. It order to control it, we must adopt new hygiene habits including social distancing, improved health and staying active.
I call on all of us to unite and adopt a new social civism in the face of this pandemic together.
I call on you to behave in a manner that complies with the duties of a citizen by respecting the protocols of gradual opening of businesses, companies and transportation.
I call on you to adopt behavior based on good habits by taking of your health and that of the people around you.
I call on you to instill good habits among the nation’s youth by serving as role models.
We must not back down because of the ignorance, negligence or selfishness of a few, let us regain our firm footing and stay on course.
Let’s do it once again as a team because only together We Will Succeed.
