Guatemala receives a flight with "75%" of deportees from the US with coronavirus


Guatemalan Health Minister Hugo Monroy said Tuesday that a flight of deportees from the United States arrived in the country with at least "75 percent" of returned migrants infected with coronavirus.

"In total I can tell you that there is at least one flight of more than 75 percent of that flight, for security reasons and sensitive data, more than 75 percent of that flight was positive and is positive," the official told reporters. in Congress, where he attended a summons from the Legislative Body.

Until Tuesday, Guatemala has counted a total of 180 people infected with COVID-19 and five who died from the same cause, according to the details of the local president, Alejandro Giammattei, on the national network.

Monroy assured that "the number (of those infected by the deportees who have come) has increased," and "it is not that we have to stigmatize them, but that I simply have to speak to the reality and transparency that the President has ordered me" .

The words of the Minister of Health contrast with the data provided by the Guatemalan presidency, which had stated that only three people deported from the United States had tested positive for coronavirus tests.

The Guatemalan presidency and the Ministry of Health did not explain the difference in the figures. A spokesperson for the health ministry told reporters they were "looking at the issue" and asked for "time" to answer the question, without being resolved at the end of the day.

Neither the minister nor the authorities detailed the date of the flight or the number of people who were deported on the aircraft, in addition to their specific origin.

The United States has maintained the deportation of Guatemalans despite the health emergency caused by the expansion of the coronavirus.

The North American country only suspended flights for two days after the first positive case of COVID-19 by a deported person, and at Easter.

"The situation is that there are really flights where we are deported with a fever and so they get on the planes and we automatically evaluate them here and that is where we test them immediately and many of them have tested positive," added the minister in the Congress.

The United States deported 2,938 Guatemalan illegal migrants in March, 34 percent less than in February, according to official data.

On Sunday, March 29, a migrant deported from the United States to Guatemala tested positive for COVID-19, according to Guatemalan authorities.

Most of the deported aircraft come from Brownsville and El Paso, both in Texas, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute.

Since the first coronavirus case in a deportee, the United States has sent more than 1,000 illegal migrants back to Guatemala by air.

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