Guarulhos mayor asks to close international airport to avert Indian coronavirus variant
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Guarulhos (SP) mayor Gustavo Henric Costa (PSB) has forwarded a request to the federal government calling for a 15-day closure of the São Paulo International Airport (GRU) in Guarulhos, the country’s busiest airport. The goal is to prevent the entry of more people infected with the Indian B.1.617 coronavirus variant.
Costa sent a letter to the Chief of Staff, Ministries of Health, Justice, Infrastructure and Defense calling for the airport to be closed. In the document, the mayor argues that “with the emergence of the new Indian strain of Covid-19, and with vaccination in progress for the priority group of airport workers, we request the closure of airspace for commercial flights (except cargo carriers), more specifically the suspension of all landings and takeoffs of international passenger flights at Guarulhos Airport for the next 15 days, in order to prevent international passengers from spreading new strains when landing.
If the request for the airport’s temporary closure is rejected, Costa requested the preparation of a new protocol to strengthen the local health barrier.
The Indian variant of the coronavirus was detected in a 32-year-old passenger who disembarked at GRU on May 22. He is from Campos dos Goytacazes, in Rio de Janeiro, and the diagnosis was confirmed by the Adolfo Lutz Institute, from the São Paulo State Health Department.
The information was released by the state government on Wednesday morning, May 26. With the confirmation, the number of people infected by the strain in the country rises to 7.
The other 6 are passengers who arrived in Maranhão aboard Zhi’s MV Shandong ship, docked at the State’s coast. There are another 3 suspected cases in the Federal District, in Espírito Santo and in Minas Gerais.
According to the São Paulo state government, there are no records of an autochthonous case (local infection) of the Indian variant in the state.
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