Tourist success could be brief

Mexico had a span of two weeks over the Christmas holiday where it seemed like tourism had returned. Quintana Roo state — home to Cancun, the Riviera Maya and Tulum — received 961,000 tourists during that stretch, down only 25% from the previous year. Yet the positivity rate of coronavirus tests in the state is nearly 50%, and the weekly number of deaths quadrupled from the week before Christmas to the week after, according to federal government data. Mexico has recorded more than 134,000 confirmed deaths. That’s the world’s fourthhighest death toll, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Emilio Espejel / Associated Press Musicians approach tourists in Mexico’s Playa del Carmen on Jan. 5 amid a pandemic surge. At the close of 2020 and start of this year, the region received 961,000 tourists — nearly half from the U. S.