Photo: Manuel Ocaño / Impremedia
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said this weekend that his administration will communicate with Governor Gavin Newsom to jointly reopen the border between California and Baja California.
“I gave instructions to Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard to look for the governor of California and reopen the border” in the stretch of the Californias, said the president on a scale in Tecate on his tour of Baja California.
The president said in a speech that “it is time for the border to be reopened.”
López Obrador particularly thanked “ to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris ”for their efforts so that the United States will donate one million 350 thousand Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccines.
The government of Mexico decided that the entire batch of donated vaccines would be applied in Baja California to advance the reopening.
The application of most of this donation will allow the state of Baja California to reach vaccination levels of “herd immunity” in two weeks.
After marathon days of vaccine application, between one hundred thousand and 200 thousand doses per day, in Baja California, the state government declared that it reached the levels of herd immunization; now there is only the two-week period in which the Johnson & Johnson doses provide the greatest protection.
“Baja California thus becomes the first entity – the first state – to receive the vaccination of those over 18 years to the entire population ”, said the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez.
The secretary said that out of a million 350 thousand vaccines that arrived in Baja California, all were applied, except some 85 thousand.
According to a plan of the Mexican government , the remaining vaccines go to the next state on the border, Sonora.
The remaining doses in Baja California were shipped this weekend to the first nearby town in the state of Sonora, San Luis Río Colorado.
Baja California has a population of 3. 36 million It is for people and, before the vaccines donated by the Biden administration arrived, doses of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca were already being applied, in addition to the Chinese CanSino vaccine and the Russian Sputnik 5.
Baja California had vaccinated on 20 percent of its population when those donated by the United States arrived, serving the population of 18 to 39 years of age.
Gustavo de la Fuente, the executive director of the Smarth Border Coalition, told Real America News that, according to a plan of the Mexican government, first they will complete immunization of the states that border United States to reopen the border.
“I understand that it will be a gradual reopening, as immunity is achieved in each state,” and the first It would be Baja California, he explained.
Mexico and the United States established restrictions on non-essential border crossings in the framework of the pandemic since March of last year, and have lasted every month in a row.
Now the tenth sixth month. “We could not reach the level of immunity that is needed before 21 June, but most likely it will be achieved by before 21 July in Baja California ”, explained De la Fuente.
The restrictions have been basically for Mexicans who have a tourist or visitor visa, mostly residents of the border strip.
Mexicans and other foreigners flying to US cities do not face the restrictions, nor do Americans and legal residents – green card holders – who live on the Mexican border.
The restrictions, in the hands of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are not either apply at land border crossings from the United States to Mexico, only to those crossing from Mexico to the United States.
The reopening of California began on 15 June by instruction Governor Newsom; that of Baja California – now with an epidemiological green light – would be reached around 10 July, with the protection complete J&J vaccines.
The Secretary of Health of Baja California, Alonso Pérez, explained that it is possible that the US border authorities want to make sure that those who cross (with a tourist or visitor visa) are vaccinated and check “together with the visa the card of vaccination. ”
The CBP office did not immediately respond to a request from the press about this possible review of vaccination tests.
The delegate of the federal government in Baja California, Alejandro Ruíz Uribe, said through his parye that the authorities on both sides of the border are preparing the reopening of the El Chaparral pedestrian gate, which on the California side is PedWest, closed since March of last year due to the pandemic.