Easter Island, 3,500 kilometers west of the Chilean coast in the Pacific Ocean, will reopen to the world on August 1 after more than two years of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, the government announced on Friday. Chilean.
"It has been agreed that the opening of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) will take place on Monday, August 1, 2022"
, says a press release from the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism about this island known worldwide for its moais, these huge stone statues in human form.
This was originally planned for February, but did not materialize under the government of former conservative President Sebastián Piñera (2018-2022).
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After leftist President Gabriel Boric came to power in March, authorities devised a plan to reopen Easter Island, whose main source of income was domestic and international tourism, before flights were nailed down. on the ground on March 16, 2020 following the first cases of coronavirus in the country.
The island currently has only one weekly flight, from the Chilean-Brazilian company Latam, with limited access.
From August 1, two or three flights per week will be operated by the same airline to transport tourists.
Among the conditions set by the government for the reopening to tourism, it is necessary
to “achieve 80% coverage”
of the vaccination rate against Covid-19, he specified.
Some 73% of the 10,000 inhabitants of Easter Island are vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The medical center in his only city, Hanga Roa, does not have intensive care units, but is equipped with ventilators.
An emergency flight to the mainland takes about five and a half hours.
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The island has recorded only a tiny handful of coronavirus cases.
The outbreak has resulted in no hospitalizations and no deaths there, according to local authorities.
Despite this, the original people of Rapa Nui organized a consultation on October 25 to find out whether or not the population wanted the island to be open to tourism.
The non-binding result was 67% against.
Chile has recorded 3.6 million cases and more than 57,000 deaths from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
The vaccination rate in the country is 91.2%.