 Both chambers say that they have asked businessmen to be more severe in complying with the sanitary guidelines in their businesses and request their clients follow the rules. - A.M. Costa Rica illustrative photo -  |
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Published
Monday, May 17, 2021
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The National Medical Union requested the Ministry of Health to implement a series of measures to try to contain the increase in cases of patients infected with covid-19. Among these measures, requiring the PCR test for all international travelers who enter the country. In response, both tourism chambers, the Tourism (Canatur) and the Hotels (CCH) expressed their opposition to demanding the testing requirement again. “We recognize the difficult health circumstances that the country is going through, it is also true that we have proven to be a responsible sector, we applied health guidelines on our services and there is also plenty of evidence that we are the sector most affected by the economic crisis of the pandemic. For this reason, we reiterate our strong opposition to establishing this requirement again,” Rubén Acón, President of Canatur said. According to both chambers, a covid-19 diagnostic test with a negative result is not a guarantee that the person is virus-free. "There are studies that show that the risk of contagion of coronavirus on a flight is much less than 0.1%," they added in their statement. The Pan American Health Organization, PAHO, considered it unnecessary to request the PCR test to guarantee a traveler is free of covid-19. In November 2020, Gina Tambini, representative of PAHO in Colombia, said that "in international travel, demanding a negative test for covid-19 is not a guarantee of safety." According to Tambini, an international traveler with a negative test result using tests obtained 2 to 5 days before the departure, which is the period that some countries currently request, may have the SARS-CoV-2 infection, but present viral loads below the detection limit of the test. Similarly, the infection may be reduced before the date of departure or during international travel. An additional problem is that it is possible to obtain a positive result when the person has already presented covid-19 and no longer has the potential to infect others, which makes the requirement of the test an unfair obstacle to travel to these people. According to the chambers, the countries that practice the 72 hours before the trip entry requirement implies that at the time of taking the sample, the person may have a viral load below the limit of detection of the virus. This means the person can catch the infection before the departure date after doing the diagnostic test. "Ruling national and foreign tourists to coronavirus detection tests for their entry into the country would only imply an additional cost, a disincentive to international travel," Javier Pacheco, president of CCH said. "Measures such as that one proposed are inopportune since they do not ensure a reduction in infections, which should be the true goal and also it would considerably affect the recovery of tourism."  Both chambers say that they have asked businessmen to be more severe in complying with the sanitary guidelines in their businesses and request their clients follow the rules. The Ministry of Health reported on Friday a total of 57,291 active covid-19 cases in the country. Of the total 282,741 cases detected since 2020, a recorded 3,547 deaths are listed as covid-19 related, approximately 1.3% death rate. -------------------------- What are your thoughts in requiring negative tests for covid-19 to enter the country? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com             |
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