Dew magnani
03/20/2021 19:03
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 03/20/2021 19:03
The San Pablo plane lands on time in Ezeiza on Friday at 22.20.
The Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus 330 touches Argentine soil with 203 passengers and 40 free seats.
It is the last international flight of the night and the only one of the 55 that arrived that day from
Brazil, the country that most alarms epidemiologists and public officials due to the coronavirus crisis in the
neighboring State and the possible importation of new cases with the
Manaus variant
, more contagious and possibly more lethal.
Gabriel Arribalzaga, from Moreno, is waiting for a friend.
"To come from Brazil and with the health crisis they have, it is a long live how they enter the country"
, he thinks and explains: "Here, they are required to arrive with a PCR done, but there is no absolute security with the test , because you may have been infected and it takes a few days to come out.
If you go to the City, they do a second test as soon as you arrive, which is good.
But afterwards,
nobody controls anything that the person quarantines for seven days.
No one".
“In Brazil everything has been detonated badly,” he
continues with his arms crossed, in front of terminal A. “My friend is from Porto Alegre and he has dealings with doctors from there, who told him that they were burying people as hard as they could.
He is a large person with heart problems, he is at risk.
He already wanted to come to live here in Argentina and this made him finish deciding, because if the coronavirus catches him, it will strike him down, ”he tells this newspaper.
The Ezeiza Arrivals Hall.
When entering the country, a quarantine of a minimum of 7 days must be fulfilled.
Photo Enrique García Medina
A few meters away, Facundo Curzo (28) leaves and rushes to get in line with the Buenos Aires government operation to carry out
the third PCR of the week
.
“I was going to travel on Monday, but my flight was postponed for this Friday.
I had already done the first test, which had come out about 8 thousand pesos.
But to travel this Friday, I needed to do it again.
So I had to pay the 8 thousand pesos twice.
And here they tell me that I have to do it again to enter Capital ”, he tells this newspaper.
The medical student Bruna Dos Santos Ferreira Silva (33), on the other hand, finds out that she will have to pay 2-500 pesos: "As I still do not have the residence, the test is not free for me," she explains while advancing with her boyfriend to swab again.
Then they will have to quarantine for 10 days, but that's fine with him.
"Over there in Brazil, people are deniers
, the population is also larger and now there is the issue of new variants," he reflects.
Since December, the land border crossings have been closed for both Argentines and foreigners, and the plane is the only means of passenger transport enabled
.
Those traveling from abroad must undergo
a PCR analysis up to 72 hours
in advance to determine if there is contagion of COVID-19.
And they have to comply with 7 or more days of quarantine in an informed address
, until the 10 days since the sample was taken for the PCR.
Flights to Brazil will be reduced by 30%.
Photo Enrique García Medina
Compliance with these provisions
is controlled in a disparate way,
as
Clarín
observed
in Ezeiza.
While the airlines check that the passengers present the certificate of the test by PCR when checking in at the port of departure and then the Migration staff re-verify it when entering the country - not all -,
compliance with the quarantine is left to the citizen responsibility of the travelers
.
There are no post controls.
Added to that are the provisions of each jurisdiction
.
“Are you going to the City or are you staying in Buenos Aires?” Is the first thing any passenger who steps into the Ezeiza airport hears.
They are
the promoters of the Buenos Aires government, who try to persuade passengers to do a PCR
or antigen test that takes less than 10 minutes and is carried out in containers located 30 meters from the exit of the airport building.
The test, which can be by saliva or swabbing, is free for Argentines and residents, and has a cost of 2,500 pesos for foreigners.
The results are sent by WhatsApp in less than 24 hours.
Those who say that they stay in the province or that they will be passing through the Capital for a period of less than 48 hours, are excepted from the line and there is no verification to detect if a passenger is lying when leaving the airport.
Again: control depends on the will of each person.
And that, for domestic flights - where PCR is not required before traveling - is key.
In the province of Buenos Aires, on the other hand, a test is not required to enter.
“I read in the sworn declaration of the Nation that I have to do seven or ten days of quarantine, I don't remember well.
Anyway, I live alone, so I have no problems - says Juan (42) -.
When I got here, I met people from the city at the airport, but from the province there was no one to explain anything to you ”.
"There in Brazil, they are Covid deniers," says Bruna Dos Santos, who arrived from São Paulo with her boyfriend this Friday at the Ezeiza airport.
Photo Enrique García Medina
A taxi driver tells this newspaper that "many of those who arrive from domestic flights and live in the province want to take the Covid test so as not to put the family at risk and have to pay for it."
In front of the exit of Terminal A, where national and international arrivals are concentrated for now, is the white tent of
the PCR Covid-19 Testing Center, which belongs to the Airport
, which is open from 8 to 20 every day.
"They charge 6 thousand pesos,"
the man details.
Brazil is in the eye of the storm, with a record of deaths from Covid.
The frequency of passenger flights connecting Argentina with the neighboring country had already been reduced by 50%, based on Administrative Decision 155/21, published on February 28, given the alarming increase in coronavirus cases there.
But the fear of the Manaus variant, as well as
the pressure to close the borders of, among others,
the Buenos Aires Minister of Health, Daniel Gollán
, pushed the national government to announce on March 12 that this restriction would be intensified by 20% .
Thus,
Administrative Decision 219/2021 establishes a 70% reduction in the frequency of passenger flights to and from Brazil.
Meanwhile, the resolution fixes that the frequencies will remain reduced by 30% for flights to Mexico, Europe, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Chile;
and they will be reduced to 40% for the United States.
Meanwhile,
flights to and from the United Kingdom continue to be suspended
, as a result of the emergence of the new variant of Covid-19 in that country.
The Buenos Aires government carries out free Covid tests to those who arrive at the Ezeiza Airport.
Photo Enrique García Medina
Airlines is already canceling flights to adjust to the new reduced schedule.
"I was already going to fly on March 17 from São Paulo and they canceled my flight. Here the protocols are better than in Brazil. There I felt insecure, because people do not wear a mask and do not want to do tests. They do not even believe that the coronavirus is real, starting with Bolsonaro, "says Emily Souza, a member of São Paulo who lives in Buenos Aires.
Juan Pablo Cecchinato also had several flights rescheduled.
“I had to do the PCR at the San Pablo airport, which cost me 350 reais.
I did it there for a security issue, because there are other laboratories that do not accept them, according to what they told me, ”he tells this newspaper and adds that
they asked him when checking in, but not when entering the country, at the control of Migrations.
Clovis Adalberto Belini pushes two suitcases.
He is also a Brazilian studying medicine in Buenos Aires.
“Everything is horrible there.
At least here, if you don't have medical coverage, the government covers the test.
I think it is good that the tourist flights between Brazil and Argentina are closed, but not the flights for which we live here, "he says and rushes to go through the testing of the City Government.
ACE
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