The Jalisco municipality of Puerto Vallarta is the only one in the state to have recorded coronavirus infections among medical personnel.
There are now 21 cases in the popular tourist destination, the third highest in the state. Nine are among health professionals.
Guadalajara tops the list of Jalisco’s 198 Covid-19 cases with 66, followed by neighboring Zapopan with 54. But Puerto Vallarta and the capital each have recorded three of the state’s 13 Covid-19 deaths, more than any other Jalisco municipality.
Although Puerto Vallarta residents and visitors are currently observing the federal government’s quarantine guidelines, authorities initially failed to enforce the measures to their fullest extent and allowed foreign tourists to gather on the beaches when they were supposed to be closed.
Local reporter Doraliz Terrón was harassed and physically attacked by two Canadian tourists in early April while reporting on foreign visitors not observing the public health guidelines on the beach.
Her story ended up going viral online, compelling local authorities to reinforce quarantine efforts on the city’s beaches.
Terrón told Mexico News Daily that she believes the virus has hit Puerto Vallarta in this unique way as a direct result of that failure to enforce the rules from the beginning.
“The [local] authorities were very permissive during the first days of the pandemic, given what they wanted, which was to continue to treat foreign tourists well,” she said.
Terrón added that the initial cases in Puerto Vallarta all began in people who work at or in the vicinity of the international airport, either in a commercial, transportation or official airport capacity.
“Unfortunately these people were perhaps infected by a foreigner who arrived [for vacation],” she said.
But a glimmer of hope shone through the weekend’s cloud of heavy headlines, as Terrón said that one of the sick health workers in the city had recovered and was scheduled to be discharged from the hospital on Monday afternoon.
To date health authorities have investigated suspicious cases in 101 of Jalisco’s 125 municipalities and detected infections in 23 of them. Another 2,805 suspected cases have tested negative during the pandemic, and 372 possible cases are currently under observation.
Source: La Jornada (sp)
