Mayor Claudio Radonich already met with the Minister of Health, Mr Enrique Paris, and the Tourism Undersecretary, Mr José Luis Uriarte, to explore this possibility. The idea is to boost visits to the commune by people who visit Antarctica.

At the end of May, the Minister of Health, Mr Enrique Paris, talked about Magallanes with “hope”. “It is well known, and some experts agree, that the Magallanes Region is always a few steps ahead compared with the rest of the country”, he said during the account of 27 May. “If the numbers in Magallanes are decreasing, I hope that also occurs in the rest of the country”, he added.

At that time, the cases in Magallanes had been decreasing for several days, with a -12% drop. After experiencing the peaks of the pandemic before the rest of the country, and reaching 1,700 active cases in October 2020 and almost 900 by late April 2021; that day the region recorded 558 people carrying the virus. Based on the last epidemiology report of the Ministry of Health, on 31 May that figure dropped to 397.

The decrease is strictly associated to another rising number: the vaccination rates in the region, where more than 97,000 people, in a universe of 141,000 who are within the population to be vaccinated, already finished their vaccination scheme. According to the DEIS [Department of Statistics and Health Information] records, 70.5% of the target population already received both doses of the vaccine against covid-19. This allows some optimistic plans in the area, such as the one submitted to the sanitary authorities by the Municipality of Punta Arenas.

“We have self-imposed to reach the goal of 90% vaccination coverage; the good news is that we are already at 84% with their first dose, so we may reach that goal in a few days. We also hope that we reach 90% with the two doses in a month, which would be a record in Chile and in the world”, said the mayor of Punta Arenas, Mr Claudio Radonich (RN). The municipal teams continue working from Monday to Friday to reach that goal. We have installed mobile vaccination stands, which provided more than 800 doses to the stragglers in the last couple of weekends; that is, we reached 12% of the universe of stragglers in the city.

“We have resumed the vaccination speed and the mobilisation permit has made many people in doubt to make the decision to get vaccinated”, said Radonich. “Experience shows that the transmission and serious cases mainly occur in people who have not received the vaccine. The ICU and ITU are less cluttered and the people who have been admitted to said units regrettably have not complied with the vaccination scheme”. For this reason, the commune takes a chance and looks into the future.

Pilot city

Mr Radonich travelled to Santiago to meet two authorities: Minister of Health, Mr Enrique Paris, and the Tourism Undersecretary, Mr José Luis Uriarte. He had two purposes, one for the short term and the other, for the mid-term: to suggest again that the vaccination rates are directly taken into account in the progresses of the Step by Step strategy, and that, after September, the city is incorporated to the international “green pass”.

“Summer will be near its end in Europe by then, where they have this green pass, and this will allow us to see how it works. So, the idea is that our region is a pilot for the opening for foreign and Chilean tourists, with two certified doses of the vaccines, and the antigen exams certification”, the Major said.

Also, the Mayor contacted the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), who were willing to use the port of Punta Arenas as a base, instead of Ushuaia in Argentina, as they are apprehensive regarding sanitary matters.

The agreement would allow cruise ships to call in the area in exchange of two things: that the ships buy provisions from local producers of lettuces and mineral water, for example, and that the tourists have to stay in Punta Arenas before returning home. “The idea is that they do not go from the plane to the ship, from the ship to Antarctica, from Antarctica to the ship and then to the airport”, said Radonich.

“They can stay for one and a half day more in Punta Arenas, so that an offer for entertainment and services is open, incorporating the community. For example, it is trending to manufacture products with our wool. We can take tourists to the places where they can see how wool is manufactured, so that they knit. The most southern brewery is here, which has operated for 120 years. They can also practice kayaking in the Strait. This will make suppliers and entrepreneurs of the area get involved”, he said.

 “Both the Minister of Health, Mr Paris, and the Tourism Undersecretary were open to the possibility of our region being a pilot and that this 90% of vaccination coverage becomes a trademark not only to open the region to tourism, but also to provide further mobility to our neighbours and to maintain this standard”, added Radonich. “We want tourism to start operating under sanitary safety standards in our city”.