Relatively unscathed to date, Mexico is stepping up measures against the coronavirus pandemic as authorities brace for what they call the inevitable large-scale spread of the virus throughout the region.

With zero confirmed cases of coronavirus in Baja California thus far, and its northern neighboring state of California nearing 300, Mexican health officials said they would consider limiting the southbound flow of people entering Mexico from the United States.

“The possible flow of the coronavirus would come from the north to the south,” Mexican Deputy Health Secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Thursday. “If it were technically necessary, we would consider mechanisms of restriction or stronger surveillance.”

Still, the daily ebb and flow of people crossing the border to reach jobs, family and schools continued uninterrupted Friday in San Ysidro, even as people worried about bringing the contagious virus home to Tijuana from the U.S. side.


Mexican border agents wore plastic gloves and face masks while checking people into the country, but said travelers were not being questioned about their exposure or any potential health symptoms. Tijuana’s mayor said he is working with Baja California state health officials to implement better health checks on southbound pedestrians.

Fear over north to south travel is perhaps an unprecedented role reversal in U.S.-Mexico border discussions.

On Saturday officials unveiled the country’s most dramatic move to date — pushing up the start of the school Easter break to March 20, two weeks earlier than scheduled, giving students a full month off.

Mexican authorities urged citizens to embrace “preventative isolation” and maintain their distance from others, especially while coughing, sneezing and speaking.


“This doesn’t mean that everyone should go off on vacation and get together and enjoy themselves, because what we want to avoid is proximity,” Esteban Moctezuma, Mexico’s public education secretary, told reporters. “Yes to preventative isolation.”

Officials had confirmed 41 cases in Mexico as of Sunday.

Baja California Secretary of Health Alonso Pérez Rico said there has not yet been one confirmed case of coronavirus across the state, although officials are still waiting for the results from 24 suspected cases. Twenty other suspected cases have already been cleared as negative, he said.

In Tijuana, state health officials denied assertions that the absence of confirmed local cases indicated they were not adequately testing residents. The agency pointed to testing locations in each city and phone numbers for concerned people to call for testing options.


SIMNSA, a Tijuana medical facility and health plan, has installed tents in the border region to screen the public for possible cases of the coronavirus and has thousands of rapid result testing kits, said its president, Frank Carrillo.

“We’re very concerned about the virus here in Tijuana and we want to send a message to the San Diego community that we are taking proactive steps to prevent its spread,” said Carrillo.

Carrillo said several of the screening checkpoints will be set up in the northbound pedestrian border crossings because it can be “a very dangerous and risky area” for the spread of the disease.

Tijuana resident Pilar Arellano wore a mask at the San Ysidro Transit Center while returning from an errand in San Diego with her mother. She said she almost refused to go to the United States, but she didn’t want to let her elderly mother travel alone.


“We’re very worried. I’m not touching doors or any surfaces with my hand. I’m trying to maintain my distance from people,” said Arellano, who works in Tijuana as a manager for a fabrics supplier.

Customers buying mostly toilet paper, cleaning wipes and bottled water, queue to pay at a wholesale store in the face of the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in Tijuana on Friday. (Guillero Arias / AFP via Getty Images)

Just like in the U.S., Tijuana residents have been stockpiling essentials such as toilet paper, hand sanitizer and non-perishable foods. People are also taking to social media to post pictures and videos of empty grocery store shelves, adding to the panic.

At a Costco in Buena Vista, a line stretched nearly the entire length of the warehouse Thursday. Shoppers waited for an employee to bring out additional cases of the Costco-brand toilet paper, taking it off his cart before he could unpack it. Other brands of toilet paper remained stocked.


Jorge Macías, the president of CANACO, Tijuana’s chamber of commerce, said many of the shoppers are Americans who crossed the border to stockpile on items like toilet paper, bottled water and rubbing alcohol that are sold out in the San Diego area.

At Mercado Hildago, which is more like a farmer’s market with fresh fruits and vegetables, a 47-year-old Tijuana resident said she was taking all reasonable precautions, including wearing a mask in public, but she said staying home didn’t yet seem necessary.

“Even if it’s not the coronavirus, there are a lot of people with colds and the flu during this time of the year. It’s just a really easy way to protect myself and to protect my health,” said Dora Velia as she shopped.

By the weekend, the pandemic was starting to ripple across daily lives.


Fans packed into a sold-out Xolos game Friday night. But it would be the last in a while.

Mexican league officials later announced that matches would continue but stadiums would be closed to fans.

Officials canceled the Guadalajara International Film Festival scheduled to run March 20-27, but did not call off the signature Vive Latino music fest, taking place this weekend in Mexico City and headlined by U.S. rock band Guns N’ Roses.

On Saturday, thousands of revelers were en route to Vive Latino in the Mexican capital, even though some bands had canceled. Organizers set up sanitary stations to scan concertgoers’ temperatures and provide antibacterial hand gel.


“Yeah, they were checking people’s temperatures, but they were overwhelmed and a lot of people got in without being checked, including me” said Rogelio Lopez, 35, a graphic designer who was attending the opening concert and was reached by cellphone. “Here things are normal, people aren’t wearing masks and in truth no one is taking precautions. I don’t know if it was a good decision to come, but I am here and I plan to enjoy myself.”

The well-attended Saturday morning community events held by the city of Tijuana were temporarily postponed, according to Tijuana Mayor Arturo González Cruz. The events provide social outreach and help in terms of legal advice, job placement and social programs.

The government has not moved to limit travel from other countries, possibly to help shield the country’s critical tourism business. Mexico’s economy was already plagued with slow growth before the onset of coronavirus, and now the tourism seems likely to take a large hit as fewer people travel.

José María Ramos García, a researcher in government and public administration at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, said officials should focus on strengthening the bi-national health response to the pandemic before discussing complete border shutdowns.


“We must remember that about 35,000 to 40,000 Tijuanese go to work every day in the United States,” said Ramos, pointing out that unemployment from a border closure could pose a bigger threat to people’s health than the coronavirus.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has come under fire for not moving more forcefully against the spread of the virus.

As recently as a week ago, López Obrador urged citizens not to abandon greeting customs, including hugging and kissing on the cheek.

“You have to hug, nothing is going to happen,” the president said.


Video circulating on social media on Saturday showed the president embracing and kissing well-wishers at a rally.

The president has repeatedly urged people not to “panic” and called on the press to avoid “yellow journalism” in exaggerating the threat. López Obrador has accused political “adversaries” of being behind criticism of his approach.

Mexico is “ill-prepared” for an outbreak given the country’s sputtering economy and an ongoing overhaul of its healthcare system, said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a professor at CIDE, a public research center in Mexico City.

“No country is completely prepared for a shock like this, but Mexico is on the very unprepared side,” he said, citing, among other factors, the country’s low rates of testing for the virus.


Pérez, the state secretary of health, said officials would draw on their past experience collaborating with officials in the United States to stop the spread of other cross-border illnesses. He also said Mexico has the advantage of seeing what has and has not worked in other countries to control the deadly coronavirus’ spread.

“This scenario has already been seen. The disease is defined as a pandemic on several continents. We already knew that it was going to declare itself as such,” said Perez.

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.