On July 27, 2020, the Ministries of Health and of Labor and Social Welfare, together with the Mexican Social Security Institute, published in the Official Federal Gazette, the Ruling announcing the method for disseminating the standards for vulnerable population (hereinafter, the Standards).
The purpose of the Standards is to continue protecting the life and health of people who are vulnerable that could develop complications or die from COVID-19 according to the local epidemic risk level, and to guide the National Health System and the workplaces, and to that effect they were published on the website www.coronavirus.gob.mx.
The Standards establish, depending on the condition involved (pregnancy, nursing, obesity, people over 60, diabetes mellitus, systematic arterial hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease, kidney disease, immunosuppression treatments, AIDS infection, cancer or a combination of any of the above), the elements to determine if such condition is classified with “assessment of vulnerability”.
As a result of the above, the workers who have a condition classified with “assessment of vulnerability” may only return to their work when the places where their workplaces are located have a yellow light and such workplaces are classified as “non-COVID areas”, which is to say they are not places where patients infected with COVID-19 are attended.
The exception to the above rule will be women who are nursing, who can resume working when they finish the postpartum period; and persons with cancer, which may not return to work until the place where their workplace is located has a green light.
Persons who are not classified with “assessment of vulnerability” shall resume their work even if the light is red, as long as the other guidelines permit it, depending on the activity carried out in their workplaces.
Finally, the persons classified with “assessment of vulnerability” but who work in “COVID areas” shall resume working when the places where their workplaces are located have a green light.
It is important to emphasize that under the Standards, each case in particular will have to be analyzed to corroborate if the condition of the worker should be classified with “assessment of vulnerability” and based on that, the relevant decisions will be made with respect to his or her return to the workplace.
We will keep you up to date on any further developments on this matter.
To download the standards, click here: https://coronavirus.gob.mx/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Criterios_vulnerabilidad_27Julio2020.pdf
To obtain additional information contact our experts:
Rodolfo Trampe, Partner: +52 (55) 5258 1054 | rtrampe@vwys.com.mx
Alix Trimmer, Associate: +52 (55) 5258-1016 | atrimmer@vwys.com.mx
Alejandro Pérez, Associate: +52 (55) 5258 1054 | alperez@vwys.com.mx