The Federal Government just published a resolution in the Official Federal Gazette issued by the Ministry of Health adopting certain measures to mitigate and control the health risks caused by the COVID-19 virus, which could severely affect the operations of a large number of companies whose activities are not considered necessary to address the health contingency.
It is important to analyze whether the activities of each company could be considered necessary for this purpose, which determination will be different for each specific case. This is so because one of the measures adopted is to order all private sector companies to temporarily suspend their activities –whatever they may be– if they involve a physical concentration of individuals, transit or movement of people, from today, March 24, until April 19, 2020. Therefore, only the lines of business necessary to confront the contingency may continue operating, which include but are not limited to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, laboratories, medical services, financial services, telecommunications, the media, hotel services and restaurants, gas stations, markets, supermarkets, convenience stores, transportation services and gas distribution.
From a preliminary review of the Resolution, we concluded that its text is ambiguous, and its scope must be clarified by the authorities in the coming hours, but there is no doubt that it will have significant operational and business impacts. Given this situation, we cannot rule out the possibility that the Mexican government will decide later on to make changes or adjustments that allow for the continuation of businesses in Mexico.
In Von Wobeser y Sierra, S.C. we will continue to analyze this Resolution in detail in the coming hours and keep an eye out for the resolutions of the authorities to determine their possible impacts on the activities of our clients.
To obtain additional information contact our experts: Luis Burgueño, Partner: +52 (55) 5258 1003 | lburgueno@vwys.com.mx Rodolfo Trampe, Partner: +52 (55) 5258 1054 | rtrampe@vwys.com.mx Luis Miguel Jiménez, Partner: +52 (55) 5258 1058 | lmjimenez@vwys.com.mx