On Quintana Roo beaches there is no fear of the pandemic

Cancun, Quintana Roo, (April 06, 2021).- It is Semana Santa and Easter week, one of the strongest holiday periods of the year for the Quintana Roo tourism industry and although the occupations do not reach the numbers of previous years, a large number of people can be seen mainly on the beaches and at the Cancun airport. The indication remains the same: maintain the use of masks and a healthy distance, although few people follow these guidelines.

The Cancun airport continues to receive thousands of tourists and this Easter has almost 500 operations. There, the “Cancun Safe” program has been implemented, and all air and land terminals provide information on safety to the travelers, through a QR code, with versions in English and Spanish.

Until March 31, the Secretary of Tourism of Quintana Roo (Sedetur) reported that in the state there were 112,850 tourists, with an average occupancy of 63.2 percent in Cancun; Riviera Maya, 38.7; Cozumel, 53.2 and Costa Maya, 29.8 percent.

In the hotel zone of Cancun the party continues. Modules for Covid-19 tests have been installed and the call of the three orders of government is to avoid crowds, but here the healthy distance is a thing of the past. Videos of Punta Cancun are circulating on social networks, where hundreds of young people can be seen waiting to enter the nightclubs or dancing in the streets with no face masks and certainly no healthy distance.

“You cannot be thinking of Covid-19 in a place like Cancun. Besides, once you wear the mask for an hour, the protection goes away”, Ulises, a tourist from Argentina, told to the AFP news agency.

As for the beaches, in the seven public spas in Cancun access is not allowed if the entrance protocols are not followed, especially the mandatory healthy distance. “The influx of the sandbanks cannot exceed 60 percent of the capacity, so we have a filter, an inlet and an outlet, to be able to carry out that control. Before entering the sandy areas, people must have their face masks on, when they arrive at the module they must put antibacterial gel on their hands, and we have special containers to deposit disposable face masks”, explained Vagner Elbiorn Vega, director of the Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone (Zofemat) of Benito Juárez.

Otherwise in Playa del Carmen, where there are 38 beach checkpoints, they do not have antibacterial gel and the Zofemat staff simply ask those who pass through the module to wear face masks, which most remove after this point.

In the streets of Playa, all tourists, many of them nationals, walk along without face masks. Another place of agglomeration is the crossing dock towards Cozumel, where people stand in line with no healthy distance and many of them without a mouth cover.