Sandy Beach, a stretch of hotels and condos popular with Arizona visitors in Puerto Peasco, Sonora, is completely empty on April 9, 2020. The city closed the beaches, despite it being the peak of tourism season, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.(Photo: Courtesy of Hector Vasquez del Mercado)

TUCSON The popular Mexican resort city of Puerto Peasco began welcoming back tourists earlier this week, as the city beginsto emerge from a nearly three-month lockdown due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.

However, the area's main attraction, its miles-long sandy beaches, will remain closed to the public as health officials in the Mexican state of Sonoraand in Arizona where most of the visitors to Peasco come from continue to grapplewith rising numbers of infections.

Nonetheless, other activitiessuch as fishing, off-roading and using the pool areas of hotels and resorts will resume, with restrictions allowing for social distancing. City officials said that if cases in the city remain low, the beaches couldreopen by the start of July.

"We decided to plan a gradual reopening, orderly obviously, but with the premise of finding what has become a verycomplexbalance between public health and economic health," Puerto PeascoMayorKiko Munro told The Arizona Republic.

Nearly 80% percent of businesses in the city commonly known as Rocky Point toArizonans are dependent on the roughly 2 million visitors each year, according to the city's tourism officials.

Unlike the U.S., the federal government in Mexico did not offer stimulus packages or any other support to private businesses affected by the pandemic and the economic shutdown. That created pressure on the local government to take action.

Munro'splan to reopen Peasco has five phases. The first two allowed some of those businesses and restaurants to open their doors in order to establish and solidify safety guidelines, such as constant cleaning of common areas and mandating the use of masks in public for employees and customers.

As part of its third phase, the city began welcoming visitors from Arizona and other parts of Mexico on Wednesday. Munro marked the occasion with a special ceremony, and some resorts in the cityeven greeted the first visitors with mariachi bands.

Munro said the beaches in Rocky Point could reopen as early as July 1. That's when the city will roll outthe fourth phase of its reopening plan. But the decision lies in the hands of the federal government in Mexico City, which will make that determination based on the number of COVID-19 casesnationwide.

"We're ready to open them safely," he said. "We're just waiting for the official authorization from the government in charge of that matter."

When visitors make their way to Peasco in the coming weeks, they'll havetofollow stringent guidelinesto accessthe city's extensive network of beach-side resorts and hotels. Theirexperience also will be different because of the measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"We want to be very insistent about this point here in Peasco. We do want peopleto visit us, but when you visit us, please follow our guidelines, because that's how we'll maintain the number of infections to manageable levels," said Hector Vasquez del Mercado, the president of the Puerto PeascoConvention and Visitor's Bureau.

To date, Puerto Peasco has been spared the large outbreaks of COVID-19 that haveplagued other cities in northern Mexico and in Arizona. The city has reported only 13 cases in the past three months and one death from the virus.

Elected and tourism officials in Puerto Peasco, or Rocky Point, unveiled protocols for tourists as the popular beach-side city reopens to visitors.(Photo: Puerto Peasco Convention and Visitors Bureau)

At the onset of the pandemic, Munro locked down the city to all outsidevisitors to contain the virus. Local police blocked access and strictlyenforced a federal shutdown at the beaches.

They also set up a checkpoint to the north of the city atMexican Federal Highway 8, the road that connectsRocky Pointto the Arizona border. As the only point of access into Peasco,only homeowners and residents were allowed in.

The checkpoint will play a crucial role for all visitors. Munro said soldiers andRed Cross workerswill check the temperatures of all visitors and residents before entering the city. If someone shows above-normal body temperatures, they'll be given the option to take a rapid-detection test on site.

"If the test comes back positive, then we'll ask that person to return to where they came from, taking the necessary measures so they don't spread the virus along the way," Munro said."But if it's negative, we'll allow them access into the city."

Furthermore, only visitors with hotel reservations will be allowed past the checkpoint, Vasquez del Mercado said.

As part of the reopening guidelines, none of the hotels in the city will accept same-day reservations. So they all need to made at least two days in advance, and visitors will be required to show proof at the checkpoint.As a secondary layer of protection, the hotels open to guests will also be required to check temperatures during check-in.

Additional regulations that hotels and resorts must follow include blocking rooms for 24 hours after a reservation has ended to allow forthorough cleaning. Vasquez del Mercado, said they're also limiting occupancy to 70% for resorts and 40% for hotels.

"This weekend we're expecting a 25% occupancy, and for the following weekend no more than 40%," he added.

To help visitors plan their trip to Puerto Peasco, the city government and the visitor's bureau posted English and Spanish-language versions of their "Entry Protocols for Tourists"to their websites. They explain the policies all visitors must follow, and it lists certified hotels and businesses abiding by the city's COVID-19 guidelines.

In addition, the city government created an online map that allows visitors to see the locations in the city that have recorded positive cases.

But as the number of confirmed cases in Arizona continues to set records, the mayor ofPuerto Peasco said they're well positionedto respond to any outbreaks in the city arising from their efforts to reopen.

In the past three months, local and state officials have provided ventilators to local hospitals, and they've have also donated protective equipment to healthcare workers, Munro said.

The local government has also worked with hospitals tocreate a mobile health unit that can respond quickly to any outbreaks within the city. He added that the plan to reopen was designed to be flexible.

"In the event that we have an outbreak that we realizewe cannot control as a city, the plan allows us to close out the current phase we're in and go back to earlier phases."

Have any news tips or story ideas about the U.S.-Mexico border? Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RafaelCarranza.

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Rocky Point reopens to tourists amid COVID-19 pandemic, but its beaches are still closed - AZCentral