Government cut flights to Europe and suspend new destinations to prevent entry of more strains of COVID-19

Along with the new measures that have started to take effect in the national territory, the government has also announced border restrictions until June 25, with the aim of reducing international traffic and preventing new ones from reaching Argentina. strains of coronavirus that are not yet circulating locally. . This was announced through the Administrative decision 589/2021, published this Saturday in the Official Bulletin.

With the signature of the Chief of Staff, Santiago Cafeiero, and the interior ministers, Eduardo “Wado” by Pedro, and health, Carla Vizzotti, it was established, for example, “A 20% reduction in the frequency of passenger flights to or from European countries.”

On this point, it was clarified that the National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC) “May increase, decrease or eliminate such percentage reduction, prior intervention of the health authority ”.

On the other hand, the suspension of passenger air transport operations was again extended. with origin or direct destination from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, But on this occasion, the Republic of Turkey and the countries of the African continent were also added.

Likewise, until June 25, the entry of direct flights from Chile, Brazil and India will remain prohibited, although this time Mexico was not mentioned, a nation whose planes have not arrived until this date.

As the government explained in the recitals of this administrative decision, the new restrictions were adopted because “in the current epidemiological context, the risk of introducing new variants that are even more transmissible could generate a strong and sharp increase in cases, which would inevitably lead to higher mortality ”among the Argentine population.

In this sense, the authorities stressed that the COVID-19 strain called Delta, “considered as a Variant of Concern (VOC) by the WHO since May 11, 2021, according to several studies has shown an increase in transmissibility as well as a reduction of antibody neutralization ”.

In this regard, they recalled that this is a variant “originally isolated in India“And who has a strong circulation in UK, where it is present “with more than 90% of the samples sequenced”, but also “in several other countries of Europe”.

Meanwhile, the beta variant “was initially isolated in South Africa, where it presents its greatest circulation, being touched also some other countries of Africa, but above all turkey Yes Malaysia”.

On the other hand, this document also renewed the suspension of the pilot test which at the time had authorized the entry of tourists from Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Chile, whose final destination was the Buenos Aires metropolitan area (AMBA).

It was an initiative put in place at the end of October last year, which aimed to reactivate one of the sectors of the economy hardest hit by the pandemic, but which was quickly halted due to the increase in positive cases at the local level.

The same requirements that were established in the last extension will also remain for carriers entering the national territory by land, as well as for the crews of ships and aircraft.

However, the border closure has been relaxed by other means, since the Administrative Decision published this Saturday, while specifying that almost all of the country’s income will continue to be closed, clarified that some of them could be open “in the event that the governor of a province” so proposes.

For this, the president concerned must notify the Ministry of Health how “the safe corridor arranged for the entry of international travelers who need to transit it, identifying diagnostic testing mechanisms for SARS CoV-2 that they plan to implement, as well as isolation in case of positive admission, also considering the transfer of the respective sample for the genomic sequencing of the Malbrán Institute ”.

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