Paraguay submits to Congress law with penal definitions in line with the pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The head of the Civil Cabinet of Paraguay, Hernán Huttemann, announced on Tuesday that the President, Mario Abdo Benítez, has submitted to Congress a health emergency bill to improve the existing measures and establish new penalties in accordance with the current situation.

Huttemann recalled that Paraguay, at the beginning of the pandemic, avoided the use of definitions used in other countries, such as the State of Exception, and opted to stick “to the ordinary channels” and the “sanitary code”.

One year later, the Executive has seen the need for “this regulatory instrument to be perfected, reformed and improved” with the experience acquired in these months.

The cases of irregular vaccinations detected in recent weeks, with an investigation by the Ministry of Health of some 500 people, have also urged the Executive to take measures reflected in this bill.

The regulation provides that any “official who, using his or her position or occupation,” tries to get other people vaccinated before the vaccination schedule could be punished with up to five years in prison and disqualification from holding public office for ten years.

This bill is also intended to achieve a “stable and more orderly regulation for sanitary measures” and to delimit the powers of the National Police and the Ministry of Health in compliance with sanitary protocols.

Also, administrative sanctions are foreseen, with fines from two to 300 minimum daily wages, “depending on the seriousness of the act and its recidivism”, according to the head of the Civil Cabinet.

The new bill also provides for creating a Health Emergency Board, presided over by the President, which will include the different ministers of the Executive and listen to the different sectors of civil society.

The Board will meet every two weeks regularly to evaluate the Ministry of Health reports and analyze health measures.

Paraguay, a country with a little more than 7 million inhabitants, has registered 282,543 cases since March 2020 to date, with 6,572 deaths and 233,453 recovered, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health.