Did the United States, the country most grieving by the Covid-19 pandemic, return migrants to Guatemala while they were carrying the coronavirus? In any case, this was affirmed on Friday April 17 by the President of the country of Central America.

Twelve passengers on board a plane from the United States and randomly selected for testing by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested positive for coronavirus, said Alejandro Giammattei during '' a televised address.

The Guatemalan president hinted that other cases of contamination had been confirmed among the 73 nationals present on board the plane arrived Monday in the capital Ciudad de Guatemala.

>> See also: Covid-19: Migrants from Calais facing the health crisis

Washington has put pressure on the Central American country to continue operations to repatriate illegal migrants, despite fears about possible imported cases of coronavirus contamination and potential spread to remote areas of Guatemala.

Sending a delegation to screen migrants

A controversy erupted this week after the Guatemalan Minister of Health, Hugo Monroy, said that 75% of the passengers on a deportation plane were infected with the virus. According to the Associated Press agency, quoting a Guatemalan representative, 44 people on board the plane arrived Monday were contaminated.

The United States announced Thursday that a CDC delegation will be dispatched to assess the situation and screen migrants, who are in solitary confinement in a hospital. It is not clear when the deported migrants were infected.

There have been around 30 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among US Customs Control and Immigration (ICE) officers working in migrant detention centers, the service said.

Repatriation flights between the United States and Guatemala were again suspended on Thursday due to cases of contamination identified earlier in the week.

No comments were immediately obtained from the ICE and the American Embassy in Guatemala.

With Reuters

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