Mexican border town uses ‘sanitising tunnels’ to disinfect US visitors from Covid-19

Authorities have begun spraying people at US-Mexico crossing with biodegradable cleaning solution

Mexican authorities on the US border with Arizona have begun disinfecting American visitors with “sanitising tunnels” to stop Covid-19 spreading.

Border police in Nogales, Sonora, constructed five sanitising modules on the border with Arizona, which has been badly hit with Covid-19, to decrease the chances that the virus is carried into Mexico.

Nogales municipal government authorities posted a picture on Twitter last week showing one “sanitising tunnel” at the “Mariposas” international crossing.

“We installed one of the five sanitizing modules at the “Mariposas” international crossing point,” wrote authorities in Nogales. “Which is part of the actions carried out by state and federal authorities to prevent the spread of “Coronavirus” (COVID-19).”

According to authorities, four other sanitisation points will be constructed at international crossing points and near local hospitals.

American drivers entering Nogales at two major border crossings will now be expected to exit their vehicles and enter the “sanitisation tunnels”.

In a statement, the Nogales government said the sanitisation process involves people being sprayed with a biodegradable “protective” solution.

“This tunnel contains a mechanism managed by specialized personnel that applies a quaternary, biodegradable and disinfectant water solution to people, which will be supplied to individuals outside the body when they cross into Nogales, Sonora through vaporization,” said the municipal health director, Jesús Alberto Dicochea Aguilar.

Authorities say that the solution, when sprayed on skin and clothing, would protect those coated with the spray from catching “any” virus and bacteria, including the coronavirus, for a 24 hour period.

Nogales mayor Jesús Pujol Irastorza told a local news outlet that most of the confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Nogales, Sonor, had recently returned from the US.

“That is why these sanitizing modules have been installed in the international crossing points that the vast majority of the inhabitants of this border have demanded,” the mayor told El Imparcial.

Sonora, Mexico, has around 400 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 32 in Nogales. Meanwhile, Arizona has more than 11,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and over 500 deaths.

Some Mexican experts have said that the number of cases in the country has, however, been underestimated.