Controls on Recife's most touristy beach are reinforced by COVID-19

Authorities in the Brazilian city of Recife blocked access for bathers and from this Thursday they intensified patrolling on Boa Viagem beach, the main and most touristic beach in the capital of the northeastern state of Pernambuco.

After recommending the closure of shops, the Mayor of Recife this week restricted access to its main beach, the destination of a large number of Argentine and European tourists who are attracted by the warm waters and tropical climate of the region.

The municipal administration closed the eleven parks, sports fields and open-air gyms on the promenade, in addition to prohibiting the movement of pedestrians and bicycles on the platforms, which remained crowded in recent days despite the interruption of trade and some activities. by COVID-19.

Thus, the Militarized and Mounted Police, the Metropolitan Guard and the Fire Department blocked the bike path that stretches along the seven-kilometer stretch of the tourist beach with fences and tapes and prohibited the parking of vehicles.

With the restrictions imposed by the municipal government to stop the advance of COVID-19 in the next fifteen days, police officers on motorcycles and horses unusually passed through the sands of the now lonely beach.

However, less than a kilometer away, in the neighboring favela of Brasilia Teimosa, one of the few neighborhoods in Brazil with a beach, some swimmers defied the authorities and entered the sea.

Pernambuco is the ninth of the 27 states with the highest number of positive cases for the coronavirus, totaling 555 of the 17,857 infections reported this Thursday by the Ministry of Health, while the number of deaths registered 56 of the 941 deaths.

Last Sunday, the Government of Pernambuco, which territorially administers the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, suspended the entry of tourists to the 21 islands to avoid a collapse in the health system in the event of a spread of the coronavirus.

Recife's strict measures had already been taken in the country by some beach cities in the state of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, among others.