Please try another search
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Guatemala's President Alejandro Giammattei looks on during a news conference in Guatemala City
By Sofia Menchu
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said on Friday a large number of migrants on a deportation flight to Guatemala from the United States this week were infected with the coronavirus, adding that U.S. authorities had confirmed a dozen cases.
Giammattei said 12 randomly selected people on the deportation flight tested positive for coronavirus when examined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He suggested more on the flight had tested positive as well.
"A large part of it was infected," the president said in a televised address, referring to a flight carrying 73 Guatemalans that left the United States for Guatemala City on Monday.
The Trump administration has pressured Guatemala to keep receiving deported migrants despite growing concern in the poor Central American nation that returnees are bringing the virus with them and could infect remote communities.
Monday's flight has been at the center of a political storm since Guatemalan Health Minister Hugo Monroy this week said up to 75% of passengers on a deportation flight were infected with the virus. The Associated Press later cited a Guatemalan official saying 44 people on the Monday flight were infected.
The United States said on Thursday it had sent a CDC mission to assess the situation and test the migrants, who remain in quarantine in a hospital.
It is not clear when the deportees became infected. There have been 30 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among ICE (NYSE:ICE) employees working in the agency's detention facilities, including 13 at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana, ICE data shows.
Flights deporting Guatemalans from the United States were on Thursday temporarily suspended after reports of the mass infection. Deportation flights had only started again on Monday after a five-day suspension because of earlier infections.
Neither U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which operates the deportation flights or the U.S. embassy in Guatemala immediately responded to requests for comment.
LONDON (Reuters) -Monkeypox is not yet a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) ruled on Saturday, although WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus...
By Jennifer Rigby LONDON (Reuters) -The World Health Organization will decide on Thursday whether to declare monkeypox a global health emergency, stirring criticism from leading...
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa has repealed COVID-19 restrictions on mask-wearing in indoor public spaces, limits on the size of gatherings and entry requirements at its...
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.