Quintana Roo’s governor, Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez, has announced that the northern part of the state, which includes Tulum, is raising its epidemiological warning level from yellow to orange Jan. 25-31.
This comes in response to a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the area.
Tulum, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and other tourist hot spots will implement more strict health and sanitary guidelines. Stores, restaurants, and other business establishments will decrease their capacity from the current 60 percent, down to 30 percent.
Supervisory operations officers will patrol beaches, modes of public transportation, and other high-traffic areas to make sure health and sanitary guidelines are being followed.
Quintana Roo officials are also collaborating with hotels to formulate a plan for providing COVID-19 tests to Americans, who will require them in order to fly home to the United States.
Gov. Gonzalez said the continuing rise in cases could eventually lead to Quintana Roo increasing the epidemiological light to red, with stay-at-home orders being put in place.
This area of Mexico, much like other tourism destinations worldwide, suffered in its tourism sector due to the pandemic. In the first few months alone, the Mexican state lost more than 100,000 tourism-related jobs. Over 80 percent of the state’s revenue comes from tourism, a fact which led to the state declaring travel an essential service.
Quintana Roo has since been able to regain some of its lost tourism revenue, much in part through American tourists. In fact, the state has experienced a surge in visitors from the United States— a 23 percent increase from 2019 to 2020 to be exact. Currently, there are around 100 flights from the U.S. landing in Quintana Roo daily.
“We are facing a crucial moment,” Gov. Gonzalez said. “I will say this clearly; if we do not take sanitary measures seriously, we can lose, in a very short time, what we have managed to gain in recent months.”