Puerto Rico Governor: There's no pleasing everyone with pandemic response

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said Thursday he cannot please both those who want a total shutdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 following a huge hike in the number of infections and those who want to repeal restrictions.

“Here is a sector that asks for a curfew and a lockdown and there is another sector that doesn’t want the government to order people, businesses on what they have to do because they believe that the most important thing is the citizen’s own responsibility,” Pierluisi said in response to questions from the press.

“When making decisions, I always try to find that middle point that is the wisest and is the one with the best result,” he said. “I do not rule out any measure. I will be consulting, but I tell you that when I make decisions it is impossible to please everyone.”

The governor insisted that the hospitalization rate remains his main criteria for making decisions.

“So far, thank God, the [numbers of sick people at] hospitals are under control,” he said. “They are at 50 percent capacity and both the secretary of health and my team are in communication with the hospitals because that is really the metric that we are watching the most because this variant is more contagious, more transmissible.”

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