The U.S. Embassy is urging Americans to avoid traveling to Mexico for spring break or other non-essential trips in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
According to a health and safety advisory issued on March 4, the U.S. government said that most areas of Mexico are still under the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, all Americans who visit the country will have to prove they are COVID-free upon returning to the U.S.
“U.S. citizens should reconsider spring break and other nonessential travel to Mexico due to COVID-19,” the U.S. Embassy stated on its website. “Cases and hospitalizations remain high in most of Mexico. Consular services, like appointments for emergency passports, are limited in many locations due to the pandemic.”
According to data provided by Reuters, there have been 2,130,477 COVID-19 infections and 190,923 coronavirus-related deaths reported in Mexico since the pandemic began. However, the average number of new daily infections have been falling.
As of March 9, there were an average of 5,885 new infections reported each day, which is a drop of more than 2,600 compared to three weeks ago. Overall, daily infections have dropped by approximately 66% since they hit their peak on Jan. 21.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 4 travel health notice for Mexico in February.
The advisory recommended that U.S. citizens avoid all travel to the country. It also urged Americans to avoid all unnecessary domestic and international travel because it is difficult to practice social distancing measures in airports and other transportation hubs.
While U.S. travel numbers are still well below pre-pandemic levels, air travel has been steadily trending upward in recent weeks. In fact, passenger numbers at all U.S. airports exceeded 1 million every four days in February, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration.
Mexico uses a color-coded system to identify the level of coronavirus cases in various regions, with red representing high case numbers, orange and yellow representing moderate case numbers and green representing low case numbers. Popular tourist destinations such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Puerto Vallarta are currently classified as yellow.
Cancun, which is a hot spot for U.S. tourists, is expected to see 49.5% hotel occupancy the weekend of March 12-14, which is low compared to other beach destinations in Mexico.
Under current U.S. travel restrictions, Americans returning from Mexico are required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test result obtained within 72 hours of departure.