Colombia to resume domestic flights to and from Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombia will next month restart domestic flights to and from Leticia, the capital of its Amazonas province, the government said on Wednesday, ending months of isolation for the city.

Flights to and from Leticia were suspended in late January over concerns about the spread of the Brazilian P1 coronavirus variant. Studies have shown that this variant is about 2.5 times more contagious than the original coronavirus and more resistant to antibodies.

The Colombian department of Amazonas shares a border with the Brazilian state of the same name and the decision to suspend flights came after a case of the P1 variant was reported in Tabatinga, a Brazilian city near Leticia.

“In Amazonas, particularly in the city of Leticia, where the projected seroprevalence is very high, led the Advisory Committee in its last session to recommend this opening of flights,” said in a statement the director of Epidemiology and Demography of the Ministry of Health Julian Alfredo Fernandez.

Seroprevalence is the percentage of individuals in a population that have antibodies against infectious agents such as viruses.

The population of Amazonas is a little less than 80,000 inhabitants and most of them live in Leticia. So far, more than 50,000 doses of vaccines have been administered in the region, according to the Ministry of Health.

People who need or want to travel from Leticia when flights resume on May 1st will need to present their Covid-19 vaccination card to prove they have been administered the required doses, the Ministry of Health said.

Travelers must have received their second dose at least 15 days prior and present a negative antigen test result. Those who have chosen not to be vaccinated will be required to comply with a 7-day quarantine in hotels, for which they will have to pay, if they fly to the capital Bogota.

Source: El Economista