Aerolineas Argentinas planes at the Jorge Newbery airport in Buenos Aires, on April 29, 2020.AGUSTIN MARCARIAN / Reuters
With the borders closed to tourism since the end of December due to the covid, the Argentine Government now seeks to discourage Argentine travel abroad.
On the eve of Easter, the Executive of Alberto Fernández has decreed new restrictions, which include the suspension of flights from Brazil, Chile and Mexico and greater controls for those who return from other countries.
The measures, published in the Official Gazette, will come into effect from Saturday.
In both Brazil and Chile there is a high community circulation of the Manaus strain of the coronavirus, one of the most contagious, and with the suspension of travel the Government seeks to limit its spread.
The decision to include Mexico comes after dozens of high school students arrived infected.
The fact that all the students had tested negative in the virus detection tests carried out in Mexico and, instead, their result was positive at the Buenos Aires airport led to the opening of an investigation into the possible existence of false diagnostic tests .
To avoid similar situations, the Government will force passengers returning from abroad to pay for a PCR test out of their own pocket and another after seven days.
If the first one tests positive, the quarantine will have to be carried out in one of the accommodations designated by the Government, also at the expense of the traveler.
If negative, newcomers may remain isolated at the address stated in the affidavit.
The ban in force since Saturday on Brazil, Chile and Mexico is in addition to the one that already applied to flights from Great Britain.
Travelers from other countries, as of Monday, should check with their airlines the availability of their flights, since the objective is the progressive reduction of air travel.
Increase in cases
The measures announced by the Government come when Argentina is on the verge of a second wave of covid-19.
While vaccination advances at a slower rate than expected —with 3.4 million vaccines inoculated to date—, cases have risen steadily in recent weeks in the city of Buenos Aires and in nine other provinces of the country.
To date, 2.2 million people have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Argentina and 55,092 have died.
The Argentine government maintains for now the freedom of movement for internal tourism, but has asked the population to take extreme care measures and maintain physical distancing to prevent the spread of the virus.
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