Brazil adds five-day quarantine for unvaccinated travellers

The country’s president Jair Bolsonaro is himself unjabbed

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

In new rules announced on Thursday, Brazil will require all unvaccinated travellers arriving by plane to go into five days of quarantine.

The ruling from the ministries of health, justice, infrastructure and the government’s chief of staff was published yesterday in the nation’s official gazette, and is effective from 11 December.

The change is thought to be linked to the emergence of the omicron variant, but the head of Brazil’s health regulator, Antonio Barra Torres, told the Associated Press that the rule is a “a deterrent and educational measure” designed to discourage “anti-vaccine tourism to Brazil”.

International visitors, regardless of vaccination status, must also take a PCR test up to 72 hours before departure, and and fill in a declaration about their intentions to enter Brazil for the country’s health regulator.

Unvaccinated travellers will have to take a Covid test after the five-day quarantine period and must check in with a health agency centre that will have their addresses.

However, it is unclear how effectively Brazil can or will track and enforce these visitor quarantines, which it is presumed will take place in travellers’ accommodation.

Brazil’s government, under president Jair Bolsonaro - who is unvaccinated himself - was criticised by opponents earlier this week for not having restrictions in place against unjabbed arrivals.

Health minister Marcelo Queiroga had earlier shunned calls to ask tourists for proof of vaccination, telling journalists: “As the president said … sometimes it’s better to lose your life than your freedom.”

Brazil has the world’s second-highest death toll from Covid-19, with some 616,000 deaths from the virus to date.

It ranks after the US, which currently sits just under 800,000.

As of 9 December, 2021, 65.5 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.

Brazil has been open to international arrivals for some months, but only came off the UK’s red list, where it had languished for five months, in October.

Countries around the world have been tightening their entry requirements for both vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers after the recent detection of the omicron variant, which is feared to be faster spreading and potentially more resistant to existing vaccines.

The UK added 11 countries to its red list in two weeks, while Spain now requires proof of vaccination in order to enter, and the US has changed its pre-departure testing window to 24 hours, rather than 72.