Guatemalan authorities have found many people infected with the new coronavirus type among the deported from the United States citizens.
This is reported on Saturday, April 18, by the Associated Press.
As noted in the media, the incident has already forced the state authorities of Central America to suspend the admission of aircraft with the deported, although so far such flights have been made constantly.
The incident is due to the fact that the relevant American departments are not able to conduct testing for coronavirus for all detained migrants. In total, over 32 thousand illegal immigrants were detained in the United States. Of these, according to the Directorate of Immigration and Customs, only 400 people were checked. In addition, the House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee said that testing was not even carried out for those who were subject to deportation.
Over the past month, more than 1.6 thousand illegal immigrants have been sent from the States to Guatemala. Against this background, there are fears that there can now be an innumerable number of unrecorded cases of coronavirus infection in the republic.
According to AP, people with severe symptoms were actually measured for temperature before shipping, and they were tested for the disease. But no one tested the asymptomatic deportees, even if they were with the sick.
“It’s clear that the deportees were infected while living in the same room with other people without proper security measures”, – Edwin Asturias, an epidemiologist at the University of Colorado who works in Guatemala with local health authorities, said.
Guatemala did not begin testing deportees from the United States on Monday, when a passenger arriving from Alexandria complained of poor health. The test showed that he was infected, and therefore the remaining migrants were checked. 43 tests gave a positive result, despite the absence of signs of the disease.
Earlier, News Front reported that in one of the US migrant detention centers, guards issued a held ultimatum: they would not receive a mask until they signed a waiver of claims to the company’s prison in case of infection.