Uruguay studies opening borders to vaccinated people

“Do not take for granted that it will open in the spring, we think with this horizon, we have the obligation to anticipate”, warned Lacalle, quoted by the newspaper El País.

Asked about a possible change in strategy due to the entry of new variants of the virus, Lacalle replied: “Not at this time. There is a suggestion from the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) concerning the travelers on their return to the country, concerning the quarantine, we talked about it, we will decide it these days. “

The MSP, for its part, considers that compulsory quarantine should again be required for all those entering the country since, for a few weeks, those who enter with a negative PCR test and vaccinated, isolation is recommended and requires only to do a PCR test on the seventh day or quarantine for 14 days in case of refusal to undergo the second test.

The request follows yesterday’s announcement by the Interagency Working Group on Genomic Surveillance, which reported the entry, for the first time, of Delta and Beta variants, and, for the second time, the existence of cases of Alpha mutations. . and Lambda.

The entry of the Delta variant was made by travelers from four different countries, the Beta, on the other hand, was identified among foreign sailors who are isolated and who did not maintain contact with the Uruguayans.

In most cases, they weren’t vaccinated or didn’t have the full schedule.

Regarding the vaccination plan, Lacalle Pou said: “I continue to argue that it should not be mandatory. There is a government policy to go to people who have not been vaccinated, but most Uruguayans are going. to get vaccinated.” .

Since the start of the vaccination campaign, 4,505,681 doses of the drug against Covid-19 have been applied: 2,462,027 people have at least one dose and 2,043,654, the full regimen.

Uruguay has today totaled 378,733 infections and 5,879 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The country has reached 1,688 deaths per million inhabitants and has already overtaken countries like France (1,652), Portugal (1,685) and even the European Union average (1,667), according to processed data. by the Our World in Data site.