Visitors will have to exhibit the effects of the check to enter Fernando de Noronha, who has therefore not suffered coronavirus deaths.
One of the most prominent tourist destinations in Brazil, the paradise archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, has announced its reopening to foreigners, as long as they have had Covid-19.
Tourists have been banned from the Unesco World Heritage site, which Charles Darwin visited in 1832, since late March, when the pandemic forced the closure of many parts of Brazil.
Since then, more than 120,000 Brazilians have died, the current number of deaths worldwide, and President Jair Bolsonaro faces accusations of catastrophic mismanagement of the crisis through the containment measures they undermine.
But from Tuesday, visitors will be able to enter Fernando de Noronha, 211 miles off brazil’s northeast coast, if they can become inflamed and recovered.
The effects of two of the tests, PCR virus tests and IgG antibody tests will be accepted if performed at least 20 days prior to arrival.
Guilherme Rocha, the administrator of the archipelago, said: “At this first level of reopening, only tourists who have already had Covid and who have recovered and are immune to the disease [because] transmit it or become inflamed again will be allowed. “
Last week, a man in Hong Kong diagnosed with Covid-19 after recovering in March, the first laboratory-confirmed case of reinfection, suggesting that immunity may be short-lived.
But some scientists warn that they oppose excessive reading of the case and Rocha said the reopening resolution is based on science.
“What we have noticed is that the reinfectional ones are very rare and very questionable. There are doubts,” he said.
“The existing understanding is that whoever has already had this disease is immune. So that’s the protocol we’re following.”
Fernando de Noronha, an impressive chain of 21 islands, islets and volcanic outcrops in the Atlantic Ocean, is Brazil’s main popular destination, known for its emerald waters, idyllic beaches and affluent guests.
Rocha said he is visited by about 100,000 tourists each year, who must pay a daily payment for conservation efforts.
But the archipelago, whose only inhabited island has about 3,500 permanent residents, was closed to foreigners on March 21, when the coronavirus swept through Brazil. In April, the islanders who departed for the mainland were also excluded. Residents were allowed to return in late June after network transmission cases were eradicated.
“So far, we’ve had deaths, precisely because of the controls the government brought,” Rocha said.
Rocha admitted that next week’s reopening was not completely threat-free. “But we are pointing to the least imaginable threat. And what is the smallest threat imaginable right now? What’s the safest way? Reopen tourism on the island only for other people who have already had Covid.”
He suggested that tourists return to what he called an “exuberant” paradise in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.
“People fall in love with Noronha because of her incomparable herbal beauty, which may not be found anywhere else on Earth,” he said. “Fernando de Noronha is unique”.