Brazil-bound unvaccinated travelers will need to quarantine for five days after arrival from Saturday, December 11. Despite the new quarantine rule, Brazil remains one of the few countries still welcoming unvaccinated travelers – albeit subject to a negative test result before departure.
Details on Brazil’s five-day quarantine period remain sketchy
The new rule was published in Brazil’s official gazette on Thursday. Details on the quarantine period and its protocols – such as whether it will involve self-isolation at a private residence or supervised isolation in a managed facility, remain sketchy.
All travelers to Brazil will still need to submit a negative PCR test result before departure and make a declaration to Brazil’s health regulator. Unvaccinated travelers will now also need to submit another test result after the five-day quarantine period and provide Brazilian authorities with contact details.
News of the quarantine period comes in the same week Brazil ruled out requiring inbound travelers to produce any evidence of vaccination status. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been a staunch opponent of health passports, comparing such a requirement as a “leash” for animals.
And that raises questions of how Brazil will police its new quarantine requirement. Will they be relying on those declarations?
Brazil’s health agency wants a vaccination passport mandate
To date, over 600,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19. The daily death rate now averages around 200 (well down on daily highs of 4,000 deaths). The Brazilian Government’s open-door policy conflicts with the advice given to it by Anvisa, the country’s health agency.
Anvisa has warned letting travelers enter without providing proof of vaccination status risks turning Brazil into a “country of choice” for unvaccinated travelers – with all the health risks that poses to Brazil’s population.
“As the president said – sometimes it’s better to lose your life than your freedom,” Brazil’s Health Minister, Marcelo Queiroga, said this week.
“Lately, the world has become very concerned about a new variant of the virus. These variants can happen anywhere in the world. Countries that identify these variants cannot be punished by restricting their citizens.
Jair Bolsonaro has accused Anvisa of trying to close down Brazil’s airspace. At a news conference on Tuesday, President Bolsonaro said Brazil had to face the “challenges” posed by Omicron and argued the worst was over.
“As far as everything indicates, there is the vaccine that is there; there is the herd immunity that is there, we are reaching the end of this pandemic, I pray to God that we are all right.”
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Brazil keeps its border open
Aside from a short closure in 2020, Brazil has kept borders at its international airports open. However, in recent weeks, Brazil has paused flights from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.
Despite vaccine skepticism from President Bolsonaro, Marcelo Queiroga says over 80% of Brazilian adults are now fully vaccinated. President Bolsonaro’s stance has plenty of opponents. On Monday, a Brazilian Supreme Court ruling gave the Government 48 hours to explain why it has not introduced a vaccine passport requirement – perhaps explaining why the Government was out on the front foot this week and is also introducing the five-day quarantine period.
Coinciding with the new quarantine rule, Brazil’s Ministry of Health is establishing vaccination clinics at Brazil’s busiest international airports – Brasília, Guarulhos, in São Paulo, and Galeão, in Rio de Janeiro.
The clinics will offer unvaccinated travelers the opportunity to get vaccinated on arrival – but it won’t allow them to skip the five-day quarantine period.
