Cancun Sees Record Breaking Surge Of Cases And Could See New Restrictions

Last Updated 4 years ago

Cancun is experiencing a record number of new Covid-19 cases. The entire state of Quintana Roo is close to the highest red light warning level and Cancun is currently the epicenter of the newest outbreak.

If the state of Quintana Roo turns to a ‘Red Light' warning level. new restrictions will come into place that will affect tourists. Under the red light only essential businesses can operate. While the state has identified tourism as an ‘essential business' restaurants could be limited to only 15% capacity.

The state could also close bars, discos and all retail shops if cases continue to surge.

During the last 24 hours, state health authorities have detected 191 new infections mostly in the Cancun area. Over the last 24 hours, 409 covid tests were conducted with 191 testing positive. With a 47% positivity rate, the state could have many cases that are going undiagnosed.

For the second week, the state will remain in an orange epidemiological light. Governor Carlos Joaquin is warning of a possible return to red.

Joaquin stated that with the continued increase in infections, the state is closer to red than it is yellow and expressed concern about the large increase in Cancun.

“Benito Juárez is highly worrying. It has the highest graph spike in its history since the pandemic began a year ago, “Joaquin announced at his weekly Covid-19 press briefing. “We see an increase and it is very dangerous. A lot of care and attention is required in Benito Juárez, which at the moment, has an increase of 65 percent,” he said.

Benito Juárez is the region in Quintana Roo which includes the resort city of Cancun.

With the massive influx of international tourists and new variants surging in other countries, state officials are asking tourism operators to double their efforts in preventing the spread of Covid-19.

Reports out of Tulum have confirmed multiple businesses including 5 hotels have been shut down for consistently violating Covid-19 protocols. Tulum recorded an increase in cases of over 200% as an influx of tourism over Easter led to a strong surge.

Currently Cancun is operating under the Yellow stop light. This means restaurants, hotels and beaches must operate at no more than 30% of usual capacity. Mobility may also be restricted with the reinstallation of sanitary filters, street closures and various operations to limit road traffic. Authorities will also apply rapid Covid-19 tests and screenings in high risk areas.

Currently masks are required in all public areas of Cancun but enforcement for tourists is one of education rather than punishment. Only those refusing to wear a mask after being reminded could face fines. The use of masks on beaches is not enforced. There is currently a ban in place prohibiting the consumption of alcohol on public beaches but bars and hotels are still serving designated palapas and beach chairs.

Two weeks ago, the Quintana Roo Governor had warned that the state was moving in the wrong direction. Although he pleaded with public to help the state avoid the new warning level, it surpassed the threshold bringing it to an orange warning and continues to see an increase in cases which could even bring it to the highest level red warning.

Cancun registered over 10 million visitors in 2020 despite the pandemic crippling tourism worldwide, the resort city continued to be a top destination and was the first to reopen after worldwide shutdowns.

Quintana Roo has 23,886 confirmed cases and 2,642 deaths

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islamujeres

Sunday 9th of May 2021

as almost all nations, also in cancun 3- weeks after starting the mass vaccinacion, there is a case surge..it happened in uk, israle, india, chile, and also seychelles ( where the was almost zero covid cases until the start of vaccionation. ).

Monday 10th of May 2021

@Elisabeth, i was refering to seychelles. also india had very few case until march (dont' be confused the high number, because india is 20 times the population uk) , in chile the same, it happened in almost all country, after 3-5 weeks from mass vaccination , there is a case surge for some weeks. i'm in cancun vacation from 8 months now, and never saw case surge. i can tell you in eight months never saw a person on the beach wearing mask. only locals do. tourist no. the beach were full full in end year. january . every day i ask me how the hell here is all open,no social distancing, almost no mask, 400 hundreds flight a day arriving from everywhere, and no covid now there is a surge in case, but it's because the vaccinations, so in 3-6 weeks, it will return to normal numbers

(link)

Elisabeth

@islamujeres, ???? In UK the number of covid cases was the highest in Europe (before vaccination), where the hell did you get the information from that there were almost zero cases until they started vaccination??

Lee

This is never going to end. This needs to go through the population unfortunately but it’s the only way people will get back to any semblance of normality. They can’t lock us up for 3 years.

@Elisabeth, lot of binational couples (not officially married) also with small children, has been separated for almost one year. to see your partner is a RIGHT which has been denied and you think it is useful to close borders? argentina was the only and first in the world to close all their borders in mid march 2020 for six months, while all other countries were closing for 15-30 days (and then closing again another 15-30 days). they closed totally for six months, did it help? look at covid argentina stats,and mexico covid stats and NO, travel is not luxury. maybe it was for your parents

Liberty

@Elisabeth, Article 13 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

@Lee, where did they lock you up then? In your room? In your house? Thank god I can go outside and move freely in my own country. Funny that some people consider traveling abroad a right, I always thought it's a luxury... My parents have never been on a plane though they were never complaining about their rights/freedom being taken. God, we're so spoiled, pff.

If Cancun wants to be stupid, somewhere else will be more than happy to take up its mantle.

And notice, again, how a paltry number of "cases" (which are always poorly defined, if at all) are always the reason a place "has to" get more restrictive. The likelihood is that these "cases" are asymptomatic - i.e. the people aren't actually sick. The death-rate of covid is tiny, and yet this is what the world we know is being destroyed for? Turn off the idiot box and turn on your thinking meat.

ameri

Tuesday 11th of May 2021

@Liberty, they, the majority, must be asymptomatic in Cancun, and have been in general all over the world.

In Turkey, for instance, amoung 50k new daily cases only around 2-3k are symptomatic, which is around 5%. Which means that only those 5% COULD experience some issues or death while recovering.

And the funny thing is that there's no definitive proof that those restrictions alone help slow down the speed of new cases. Especially muzzles.

Therefore, it's not about the virus. It's about creating an exuse for new taxes, and making the current ones higher, for instance.