Baixada Santista to Close Beaches on New Year’s Eve to Prevent Crowds

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The group of nine coastal cities including Santos, known as the Baixada Santista, jointly announced on Wednesday, December 23rd, the closure of beaches between December 31st and January 1st in order to prevent crowds and, in parallel, halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes Covid-19.

The statement was made by the chairman of CONDESB (Metropolitan Development Council of Baixada Santista), Paulo Alexandre Alexandre who is also Mayor of Santos. The group represents the municipalities of Santos, São Vicente, Guarujá, Praia Grande, Bertioga, Cubatão, Itanhaém, Peruíbe and Mongaguá.

“We decided to close the beach on December 31st and January 1st, the days with the highest attendance, with the largest number of people. On other days, each city will have its own rules, after New Year’s Eve. But on the 31st and 1st, we had already decided not to have fireworks, not to have any celebration. The goal is to prevent crowds. So, access to the beach will be restricted under the responsibility of the State. This is the CONDESB’s request”, he said.

Alexandre explained that the task of keeping beachgoers away is the State’s responsibility, together with ANVISA inspectors, which are focusing their efforts during Operation Summer. In addition, he stated that the Baixada Santista cities do not have such capacity only with Municipal Guards.

“Municipalities do not have the capacity to isolate beaches. We have a floating population that will be multiplied during this time and we are unable to implement measures like this which are essential to preserve people’s health and safety only with the Municipal Guard structure,” he said.

He further explained that the nine cities will also implement measures to prevent the entry of tourists on a day-trip to the coast.

“We will ban the ‘one-day trip tourists’ vans and buses throughout the whole region of Baixada Santista. The goal is to prevent this kind of tourism at this time, that will come to spend the day and crowd the beach. So, they are banned”, he claimed.

As for hotels, Alexandre said they will work as usual, respecting their capacity limit, as they are an essential service. “Also because of bookings already made and the established planning”, he completed.

The Mayor of Santos said that the Baixada Santista merits special attention from the São Paulo Plan, as it is a destination for many tourists in the summer. “These São Paulo Plan decisions contemplate the State as a whole, but Baixada Santista must be addressed specifically because no region in the State experiences the same movement as Baixada during this period,” he argued.

“These measures, as adopted [of the São Paulo Plan as a whole], ultimately serve as an invitation to tourists to visit Baixada Santista during New Year’s Eve, which is everything we want to prevent. That’s why we’ll keep the region in the yellow phase, with severe restrictions during the turn of the year”, he completed.