MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Migrations Chief admits Argentine borders with neighboring countries may reopen soon, depending on vaccination rate

“Brazil has harmed us all,” Carignano said in reference to how the coronavirus crisis was handled

Argentina's Migrations Director Florencia Carignano Monday said reopening borders with neighbouring countries was under consideration for when vaccination has reached a larger number of people.

“As soon as a certain percentage of the vaccinated population is reached, we will open up. Of course, with all the care that is being taken in the world,” Carignano explained.

The official also admitted “pilot tests” were being carried out with Uruguay, with “cities that have a life in common.” She added that “we have a lot of dialogue between migration and the health ministries of both countries.”

But with regards to the biggest country in the continent, Carignano pointed out that “Brazil has harmed us all in its lack of care towards the population in general and has made the situation difficult for those of us who have a border with them.”

She insisted that “what we do at the borders is to take care of the people” and the Argentina Government's main concern was to prevent the number of cases from growing and to avoid or delay for as long as possible the full landing of the Delta variant of the coronavirus to the country.

Carignano also explained that the restrictions of flights from abroad were “for the benefit of the people” in the context of a pandemic. She also pointed out that last week two cases of the Delta variant were detected in the country, one has arrived from the United States and the other from Venezuela.

“Neither of them was detected by the PCR, nor the antigen,” Carignano said. “One of them began to feel symptoms after three days, but by then he had already been with his father [whom] he infected and is now hospitalized with pneumonia,” she went on.

Faced with this risk, Carignano insisted that “the only way out is vaccination” and predicted that, “in terms of openings, everything will be possible when there is a higher percentage of the vaccinated population.”

Audibly upset, Carignano wondered during a radio interview if the belief was that the government took those measures to annoy people “because we have nothing else to do.”

She added that the cap of 600 daily airborne passengers allowed through the borders was not something exclusive of Argentina and that “in Australia, for example, only 450 people a day can enter.”

“In the health emergency, all measures are unpleasant and are taken by all countries in the world,“ she argued. “How do you expect countries to be static regarding the rules when every day we wake up with a new variant?”

She also said that the national government was ”very optimistic“ with the current rate of vaccination and foresaw that ”by September or October“ it will be possible to ”have a little more of a normal life, with social life and open borders.”