MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador changes policy for air travelers

Travelers arriving from Brazil will have to be isolated for 10 days or produce a vaccination card

The Government of Ecuador Friday announced new measures regarding the covid-19 status of air travellers irrespective of whether they are arriving from abroad or from within the country.

The new guidelines follow the advice from the National Emergency Operations Committee (COE), are to become effective at 11.59 pm local time as of June 30 and are to be enforced by the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Human Mobility and the Governing Council of the Special Regime of Galapagos.

Those aged 2 or older arriving from either continental Ecuador or the Galapagos Islands, must submit a certificate of a negative result of an RT-PCR or antigen test from 72 hours before the trip. Travellers may also show their vaccination cards with the complete schedule of at least 14 days before the flight.

Meanwhile, travellers arriving from Brazil must also complete 10 days of isolation in their homes or accommodation sites, freely chosen, unless they present a vaccination card with two weeks of validity.

Requirements for the Galapagos Islands will be the same, except for the additional traffic control card issued by the local government, which eliminates documents that were up until now handled by a tour operator or by accommodation regulated by the Ministry of Tourism.

The Government plans to vaccinate nine of the 17.5 million inhabitants by the end of August, marking the first 100 days in office of President Guillermo Lasso.