Chile reopens its air border and main airport on Monday.

Aviación al Día

5 years ago

Chile will reopen its air border and the country’s main airport from Monday to allow the entry of foreign citizens, who will be required to have a negative coronavirus test and health insurance.

In anticipation of this event, a ceremony was held at the Arturo Merino Benitez Airport in Santiago, where President Sebastian Piñera called for not neglecting the biosecurity measures to prevent a second wave of the virus from affecting the country, reported the Associated Press.

“The coronavirus is still among us and, consequently, we cannot neglect it, we have to take care of our health, we have to learn to live or coexist with it,” said the president, surrounded by the ministers of Health, Interior and Transport along with other authorities.

Piñera said that measures are being taken to avoid a second wave of COVID-19 and reiterated his call to citizens to be responsible and take extreme precautions during the summer to achieve this.

The reopening, which will be gradual and will gradually extend to other airports and land and sea entry points, is part of the “Step by Step” plan designed by the government and seeks to reactivate one of the sectors most affected by the coronavirus, tourism.

Tourists entering the country must present a negative PCR with a maximum of 72 hours prior to boarding, health insurance that covers their medical benefits in the country and a sworn statement of their health status.

Chileans and foreigners who enter the country will be subject to a 14-day surveillance period and must inform the health authority of their location and state of health in order to guarantee the traceability of cases, something the country has been emphasizing in recent months.

Those persons coming from countries declared high risk by the World Health Organization (WHO) must keep a 14-day quarantine upon arrival.

In 2019 Chile received the visit of more than 4 million foreigners while in the first months of 2020 barely more than 1 million entered the country, according to figures provided by the Minister of Economy, Lucas Palacios.

Chile closed all its borders for the coronavirus on March 18th, two weeks after the first case of the infection was reported.