The Argentine Government, through Decree No. 576/2020, published in the Official Gazette on June 29, established a new, stricter stage of social, preventive, and mandatory isolation that includes new restriction measures from July 1 to July 17, 2020, inclusive, in the following jurisdictions:
- Autonomous City of Buenos Aires;
- Partidos of the Province of Buenos Aires: Almirante Brown, Avellaneda, Berazategui, Berisso, Ensenada, Escobar, Esteban Echeverría, Ezeiza, Florencio Varela, General Las Heras, General Rodríguez, General San Martín, Hurlingham, Ituzaingó, José C. Paz, La Matanza, Lanús, La Plata, Lomas de Zamora, Luján, Marcos Paz, Malvinas Argentinas, Moreno, Merlo, Morón, Pilar, Presidente Perón, Quilmes, San Fernando, San Isidro, San Miguel, San Vicente, Tigre, Tres de Febrero, and Vicente López;
- All departments of the Province of Chaco;
- The Department of General Roca in the Province of Río Negro; and
- The urban agglomeration of the city of Neuquén in the Province of Neuquén.
During this new stage of mandatory quarantine, the following activities and services declared as essential by the Argentine Government within the framework of the health emergency caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) are exempt from compliance with social, preventive, and mandatory isolation and the prohibition of circulation.
1. Health personnel, security forces, Armed Forces, immigration activity, National Meteorological Service, firefighters, and air traffic control.
2. Senior authorities of the National, Provincial, Municipal Governments and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires; workers of the national, provincial, municipal public sector, and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, summoned by the respective authorities.
3. On-duty justice services personnel, as determined by the competent authorities.
4. Foreign diplomatic and consular personnel accredited to the Argentine government, within the framework of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention of 1963 on Consular Relations, and personnel of international organizations accredited to the Argentine government, the Red Cross, and White Helmets.
5. People who must assist others with disabilities, family members who need assistance, elderly people, children, or adolescents.
6. People who must attend to a situation of force majeure.
7. People involved in funeral services, burials, and cremations. In this context, activities involving gatherings of people are not authorized.
8. People involved in the care of school, community, and soup kitchens.
9. Personnel working in audiovisual, radio, and print communication services.
10. Public works personnel.
11. Wholesale and retail supermarkets and food, personal hygiene, and cleaning retail stores. Pharmacies. Hardware stores. Veterinary clinics. Provision of gas cylinders.
12. Food industries, their production chain, and inputs; personal hygiene and cleaning products; medical equipment, medicines, vaccines, and other health supplies, as per Article 3 of Administrative Decision No. 429/20, which clarifies that Article 6, subsection 12 of Decree No. 297/20 refers to food industries that integrate the value chain and inputs of the food and beverage, personal hygiene and cleaning, medical equipment, medicines, vaccines, and other health supplies sectors.
13. Activities related to agricultural and fish production, distribution, and marketing.
14. Telecommunications activities, fixed and mobile internet, and digital services.
15. Urgent activities related to foreign trade.
16. Collection, transportation, and treatment of urban, hazardous, and pathogenic solid waste.
17. Maintenance of basic services (water, electricity, gas, communications, etc.) and emergency services.
18. Public passenger transport, goods transport, oil, fuel, and LPG transport.
19. Home delivery of food, medicines, hygiene products, cleaning products, and other necessary supplies.
20. Laundry services.
21. Postal services and parcel distribution.
22. Essential security, cleaning, and guard services.
23. Minimum guard services ensuring the operation and maintenance of oil and gas fields, oil and gas treatment and/or refining plants, transportation and distribution of electricity, liquid fuels, oil and gas, fuel stations, and electricity generators.
24. State Society Casa de Moneda, ATM services, cash transport, and all activities authorized by the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic.
25. Operation of Nuclear Plants. Hotels affected by the health emergency service. Airport operations. Operation of garages and parking lots with minimum staff. Restaurants, prepared food outlets, and fast food outlets with home delivery services. Circulation of ministers of different faiths to provide spiritual assistance.
26. Registration, identification, and documentation of people.
27. Circulation of people with disabilities and professionals who attend to them. Banking activity with public service, exclusively by appointment system.
28. National and provincial registry activity, with an appointment system and minimum guards. Provincial, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, and Municipal revenue offices, with an appointment system and minimum guards. Facilities for the care of gender-based violence victims. Scheduled medical and dental care, preventive and chronic disease follow-up, by appointment system. Clinical analysis laboratories and diagnostic imaging centers, by appointment system. Opticians, by appointment system.
29. Transfer of children and adolescents.
30. ANSES personnel.
Additionally, the following activities and services are exempted, provided the employer guarantees worker transportation without using public passenger transport services such as buses, trains, or subways:
1. Industries operating under continuous processes. Biofuel production and distribution.
2. Sale of construction inputs and materials provided by hardware stores. Activities related to forestry and mining production, distribution, and marketing. Tanneries, sawmills, and wood product factories, mattress factories, and road and agricultural machinery factories. Exploration, prospecting, production, transformation, and marketing of nuclear fuel. Essential maintenance and fumigation services.
3. Workshops for the maintenance and repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles, and bicycles, exclusively for public transport, security forces, and armed forces vehicles, vehicles for health services, or personnel authorized to circulate, according to current regulations. Sale of spare parts, parts, and pieces for motor vehicles, motorcycles, and bicycles only under the door-to-door delivery mode. Tire manufacturing; sale and repair of the same exclusively for public transport, security forces, and armed forces vehicles, vehicles for health services, or personnel authorized to circulate, according to current regulations. Sale of stationery and computer supplies exclusively under the home delivery mode.
4. Economic activity developed in Industrial Parks.
5. Production for export, with prior authorization granted by the Ministry of Productive Development. Exporting industries requiring inputs produced by others whose production unit is located in the jurisdictions covered by Decree 576/2020 must request the operation of such suppliers from the Ministry of Productive Development. Sale of already elaborated merchandise from retail stores through e-commerce platforms; telephone sales and other mechanisms that do not require personal contact with customers and only through the home delivery mode. Experts and claims adjusters of insurance companies to allow the liquidation and payment of reported claims to beneficiaries. In no case may public attention be carried out, and all procedures must be done virtually, including the corresponding payments.
6. Personnel involved in demolition and excavation activities for emergencies.
7. Sports practice by athletes classified for the XXXII Olympic Games, under the terms of Administrative Decision No. 1056/20.