Q24N – Panama’s Tocumen international airport, which serves the capital of Panama and is a regional connection center, decided to limit entry to its facilities to only passengers to reduce the risk of contagion of covid-19 in the midst of a high influx of travelers due to the Christmas season.
Tocumen International Airport S.A. (AITSA) reported this Friday that also “the reception of passengers inside is temporarily suspended” of the airport’s main terminal, Terminal 1, which has a second and large terminal almost ready.
These measures have been taken “due to the increase in the flow of passengers during the Christmas season and to reduce the risk of contagion” of the new coronavirus, which registers a gradual increase in the country, where the arrival of the omicron variant has not been confirmed.
Tocumen mobilized 7.9 million travelers between January and November, reflecting the “progressive reactivation and above forecasts” of its operations, its administration reported this week.
The AITSA stressed last Tuesday that, according to the most recent report of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), “Panama has recovered 85% of its prepandemic connectivity to North America, Europe, as well as its traffic intraregional, surpassing countries that never closed their skies like the United States and Brazil.
Last Tuesday, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health confirmed a first case of the omicron variant in an Ecuadorian patient who arrived in Quito on December 10 from South Africa, on a trip whose final route connected through Panama.
Panama, which accumulates 482,230 cases of covid-19 and 7,397 deaths, presents a stable hospital occupation, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) said on Thursday, citing a report from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).