Government limits flights to Brazil, US, Europe due to increase in coronavirus cases

The national government has asked airlines to reduce Half of the flights to and from Brazil and 30% in the United States, Europe and Mexico, due to the epidemiological situation of the coronavirus. The measure would take effect on February 1.

The proposal was made by a letter which National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC) raised the airlines at the request of the Nation’s Ministry of Health.

National government sources informed Clarín that, strictly speaking, this measure is a formalization given that there was already a reduction in the number of passengers, in fact, due to the covid pandemic.

For example, from March 20, 2020 to October of that year, there were 779 average passengers per day between departures and arrivals, compared to the 30,000 daily passengers recorded during the pre-pandemic.

Likewise, before compulsory isolation in March, statistics indicated 150 daily flights departing from Ezeiza International Airport. From March to October there were two or three flights a day, linked to the repatriation of Argentine citizens.

To scale, the sources said that in November 2019, one million passengers had been counted, up from 160,000 in November of the following year. And they added that Brazil, the United States and Europe “represent virtually the entire market for foreign flights.”

With the current resolution of December 23, only Argentines and residents can enter the country, with the presentation of a negative PCR test for the coronavirus and the completion of a mandatory 10-day quarantine (from the end of the test).

Demand from airlines

“You are informed that according to the provisions of the Ministry of Health of the Nation (…) the airlines which operate to and from the United States, Mexico and Europe must change their regular hours in order to reduce by thirty percent (30%) weekly flights of passengers from said destinations ”, specifies the text.

He adds: “Likewise, the airlines that operate from and to the Federative Republic of Brazil must modify their regular schedules in order to reduce by fifty percent (50%) the weekly flights of passengers from such destinations

The letter concludes: “It should be noted that the aforementioned portfolio specifies that carry out a periodic review of the epidemiological situation, with a view to re-establishing admissions as soon as possible. Until this is possible, this authority will approve the schedules based on the informed decision. “

This newspaper reported that in early January of this year – as the country’s covid epidemic rose again – from the Department of Health, they asked the total closure of Ezeiza international airport, as during the most difficult days of the quarantine imposed in March.

In December, 96,000 Argentines and residents arrived in the country; 3000 people per day on 15 daily flights. Between 2 and 3 cases of infected passengers have been detected every 24 hours in Ezeiza.

As the world demands the appearance of more vaccines and laboratories admit production delays, on Tuesday the Nation’s Health Ministry reported on Tuesday that 10,409 new infections have been recorded by coronavirus and 219 new deaths have been reported within the last 24 hours.

With these official documents, they add 1,885,210 positives in the country, including 1,674,555 cured patients and 163,402 confirmed active cases.

For its part, Brazil recorded 61,963 new cases and 1,214 deaths in the last 24 hours, again exceeding the range of 1,000 deaths and 60,000 new cases of the disease in the country.

Global number of coronavirus cases has exceeded 100 millionJohns Hopkins University (JHU) in the United States reported on Tuesday.

Just over a year after the virus was detected in China, the world has racked up 100,091,831 infections, including more than 2.15 million deaths. In Latin America, the countries with the most cases, after Brazil, are Colombia, Argentina and Mexico.

AFG