US CDC Requirement to Quarantine - Not Seen as Good For Mexican Economy
January 25, 2021
We have postponed two trips so far. April 10 is our next arrival date. The reason for our postponement? The requirement to self quarantine when we return home.Mary Ann and I are not terribly put off by this requirement because we don't have anyone else living with us. Also, we live in an area of low population density, and we have been able to shop and move about even during the tight shelter at home routine we experienced last March after our last trip.
That said, many of our friends take the virus very seriously. We are in the most vulnerable age group, so our friends and their families are looking out for one another to protect against getting sick.
We are not alone. Many Aimfair members have postponed their trips as well. The unfortunate affect is reduced tourism and fewer jobs in Mexico. Tourism is Mexico's life blood. The stories from our close friends are heartbreaking. One of our closest friends is a young woman who works at Vidanta. Her parents are out of work, living with her and her two children. The children are unable to attend school during the last weeks in January because of the increased Covid activity in Jalisco and Nayarit. She is making ends meet, barely, but it is hard to stay positive. Her case is evidence of what the Mexico Daily reported today:
We and our friends will have been vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the middle of February, so we all feel comfortable about having another layer of protection. Our trip will take place a month and a half after our originally planned travel date. Maybe the case load will drop by then. Also, maybe the quarantine will be lifted by then too.
US quarantine requirement seen as new blow to tourism and airline travel
Travelers must also produce positive test results but doctor says inadequate testing network will make that a challenge
Published on Monday, January 25, 2021
A requirement for travelers entering the United States to go into self-quarantine will not be good for Mexican tourism, according to an aviation and tourism expert.
Fernando Gómez Suárez, an academic at the Panamerican University, told the newspaper Milenio that fewer U.S. tourists will come to Mexico if they have to go into isolation for at least seven days upon returning home.
United States President Joe Biden signed an executive order last Thursday that requires travelers to produce proof of a recent negative Covid-19 test and comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines concerning international travel, including recommended periods of self-quarantine.
The new rules take effect Tuesday. The CDC recommends that people stay at home for seven days after returning from high risk international travel even if they test negative for Covid-19.
(Mexico is one of the worst affected countries by the pandemic, ranking 13th for total cases and fourth for Covid-19 deaths. The CDC warns against travel to Mexico due to the “very high level of Covid-19.)
“If you don’t get tested, it’s safest to stay home for 10 days after travel. Avoid being around people who are at increased risk for severe illness for 14 days, whether you get tested or not,” the CDC says on its website.
Gómez said the quarantine requirement is a blow for Mexican and foreign airlines that fly between the United States and Mexico and vice versa. Demand for air travel between the two countries and airlines’ revenue will both fall, he said.
Other tourism businesses are also set to take a hit as travelers from the United States make up about 60% of all international tourists to Mexico, according to Ministry of Tourism data.
Large numbers of international tourists, including many United States citizens, have traveled to Mexico during the pandemic precisely because the government doesn’t require proof of a negative Covid-19 test or stipulate a mandatory quarantine period.
The federal government’s response to the pandemic has been widely condemned, with much of the criticism focusing on Mexico’s low Covid-19 testing rate and the failure to enforce a strict lockdown.
Now, the introduction of the United States rules, and similar ones implemented by Canada this month, will require a significantly higher number of tests to be performed in Mexico to meet the demand from tourists from those two countries who are returning home and Mexicans and foreign residents of Mexico heading north.
Dr. Laurie Ann Ximénez-Fyvie, director of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory at the National Autonomous University, told the newspaper The Guardian that Mexico will struggle to comply with the new rules because it hasn’t established an adequate testing network.
“Simply meeting the demand of passengers traveling abroad is going to be a terrible problem when testing capacity isn’t up to the necessary level,” she said.
Ximénez-Fyvie said that public and private hospitals have the capacity to meet an increased demand but materials for processing the tests, and political will to coordinate the effort, are in short supply.
“It’s not that we don’t have the resources or the abilities or the infrastructure.The problem here has been the lack of willingness to see that it gets done,” she said.
But do you see what is happening on a small scale and how that can have a major impact on a large scale? Mexico is hurting, and certainly Vidanta feels the pain too.