On March 18, President Sebastián Piñera announced that, as of March 19, a state of Constitutional Exception for Catastrophe will be in effect throughout the country for 90 days, with the goal of preventing the spread of the coronavirus and protecting the population. 

Under this State of Exception, the Executive may dictate a series of measures, including restricting gatherings in public spaces, safeguarding the distribution of basic goods and services, ordering the creation of reserves of food and other goods necessary for the subsistence of the population, establishing quarantines or curfews, dictating measures to protect public utility services, and limiting the transit or movement of people. 

Piñera said the measure will make it possible to ensure compliance with quarantine and social isolation measures, guarantee that the production and distribution chain can ensure normal supplies to the population, and better protect and safeguard the country’s borders. He also said that it will provide greater security to hospitals and health care institutions, better protect the logistics chain and the transfer of medical supplies, and will make it easier to care for and transfer patients and medical personnel, and evacuate people if necessary.