www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Quoting news report as published in the Tico Times...saying sometime in September...

"U.S. tourists will only be welcomed if they are residents of the following states: New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Connecticut. Passengers must prove their residency in one of those states using their driver’s license.

“We have included the license-plate requirement to minimize the likelihood that someone from a non-authorized state be allowed to enter,” Segura said. “We are minimizing our epidemiological risk.”

Tourists must obtain a negative PCR-RT test within 48 hours of their flight and purchase a travel-insurance plan that covers COVID-19. (This can be a pre-approved Costa Rican plan, or a foreign one that meets a series of requirements.)

In addition, all arriving passengers must complete an online health form."

By license-plate requirement I'm assuming they mean driver's license.

I wonder if this will generate enough business for our favorite places to reopen.

The article mentions they expect about four flights a week from NYC airports. Not enough to make much difference to the economy.

For me the hardest part would be getting a RT-PCR test results back that was sampled within 48 hours. Thats just not possible here in Kansas City

How did they arrive at the list of states that they did? The list makes little sense. Take a look at the rate of transmission by state at https://rt.live. As of today, Vermont, New Jersey, and Maine all have transmission rates "in the red" above 1.0. The only one of the "permitted states" in the "best ten" is Connecticut. And there are 24 states with lower transmission rates than New York. Obviously this was either an arbitrary choice or a political choice - not driven by science.

Who knows, but it would have to be somewhere that flights would come in from, and centering on New York and states with overall lower current case count might have been the rationale. They're not going to pick Hawaii or Alaska...no chance of flights from there anyway.

It’s obvious the government has been under tremendous pressure to open up to flights from the US. They found a way to make it look like they did something and get some positive headlines. In reality almost nothing changes. Pure political grandstanding.

It will be a drop in the bucket.

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I am NOT a Cien Boy!!

Unfortunately I don't believe that the state selection has much to do with transmission rates at all. I'm from Ohio and I think we are doing better that most of the states on the permitted list. Maybe October ?????

But it also would need to be a place where direct flights to Costa Rica come in from. Don't know if you ever had direct flights to CR from Ohio?

Looking at the states selected, basically you could go from any of these states to an airport in the New York area without going through other states, although from Maine or Vermont it wouldn't be the shortest route (bypassing Mass.) But it looks like they looked at a group of states around a major air hub where there have been direct flights from in the past. Anyway...I in no way know. It is/was a decision of authorities in Costa Rica, and I'm sure made on the basis of pandemic history and current information, plus air and airport related realities.

All the flights they have allowed so far are directly from the countries they have approved - not connecting flights. And people have to be from those places, or have been in those places for 2 weeks before the flight. This seems like a similar idea.

Most people haven't been in the market for a fake ID since their teen years

That's why they want you to bring your car's license plates

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If you lose your temper you’re phucking yourself - Garcia Marquez

I have friends who are currently making license plates full time.

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" Omit no happy hour that may give furtherance to our expedition."