Uruguay fine-tunes details for the opening of its borders to foreigners

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Uruguay is fine-tuning the details for opening its borders to non-resident foreigners after more than a year of closure because of Covid-19. This Monday (9) there will be announcements by the government, official sources confirmed earlier this Friday.

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According to the latest information, foreigners with properties in the South American country would be the first to enter as part of a series of measures that the Uruguayan government is preparing to reactivate the tourism sector, which has been one of the most affected during the pandemic.

The country’s borders continue to be closed to non-residents, except for diplomatic, personal, or economic labor reasons, with the express authorization of the government.

Uruguay’s Minister of Tourism, Germán Cardoso, said at a press conference last Monday that a two-stage opening is foreseen, the first stage being for foreigners who own property.

In the second stage, and if sanitary conditions allow it, foreigners, in general will be allowed to enter. However, in both cases, all visitors will be required to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Uruguay remains in the yellow zone of the Harvard index, which accumulates the weekly average of new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants, with a record of 4.34 and, although all departments have active cases, three of the 19 – Rivera (north), Durazno (center) and Lavalleja (southeast) – are already in green, according to the daily report of the National Emergency System (Sinae).

Regarding vaccination, and according to the web monitor developed by the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), up to 1:25 PM (16.25 GMT) this Friday, 315,444 people have been inoculated only with the first dose, while 2,277,909 (64.29% of the population) have already completed the immunization schedule of the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca and the U.S. Pfizer.

Uruguay opened this week the schedule for those who – after being immunized with Coronavac or AstraZeneca – choose to receive a third dose, in this case from Pfizer, as approved last week by the health authorities.