On Saturday, April 25, an asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier left quarantine in the Southern Sonora municipality of Huatabampo and took a commercial bus line to Nogales, Sonora, potentially exposing dozens of people to the virus.
The 59-year-old man had traveled from Tijuana to Huatabampo on April 16. He was subsequently found to be positive for coronavirus despite not showing any symptoms of illness.
He was placed in a quarantine apartment in Huatabampo, but he left that apartment on the afternoon of April 26 to take a seven-hour bus trip to the border city of Nogales, Sonora.
The only two bus lines in Huatabampo with routes to Nogales are Albatros Autobuses and Autobuses los Mayitos. It is unclear which carrier the man took, but it is certain that he came in contact with potentially dozens of people during his journey.
Contact with others along the route, during several stops and when all passengers had to deboard and wait in line for a luggage x-ray at a military checkpoint south of Santa Ana.
The next day, Huatabampo’s municipal health director Dr. Eduardo Méndez Cabrera announced that health authorities were able to locate him in Nogales and he was transported back to Southern Sonora in an ambulance.
Temperature checks not sufficient
Although the man’s temperature was most likely checked as he boarded buses in Tijuana and Huatabampo, since he was asymptomatic he would not have had a fever and therefore would not have been prevented from boarding the bus.
Since up to half of all COVID-19 carriers do not show any symptoms but can still transmit the virus to others, this is an example of how the coronavirus may be spread among bus passengers from hotspots like Tijuana to other parts of Mexico.
And how one person could spread the coronavirus inside of a Nogales bus station and to others in Nogales.
Have you visited Nogales, Mexico recently? Let us know how it went.