San Antonio city councilman self-quarantines after trip to South America

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – A San Antonio City Councilman is self-quarantined after traveling to South America.

Councilman Manny Pelaez and his family returned to San Antonio Sunday night after a vacation in Colombia. They stayed in the port city of Cartagena and visited family near Bogota.

“We traveled to a little town about 50 miles south of Bogota up in the mountains,” Pelaez said. “My uncle has a big ranch, so we spent some time there.”

Before Pelaez returned home, he announced on social media that he would be under a 14-day quarantine out of an abundance of caution. Pelaez says the city manager has directed city employees who have traveled abroad to self-quarantine.

Pelaez says he and his family have no symptoms of coronavirus, and he doesn’t know if they came in contact with anyone who has COVID-19 during their travels, but he and his staff will be working remotely “to keep my neighbors and my coworkers safe, and to observe the rules set out by our city manager.”

The councilman told KTSA News he noticed long lines at pharmacies in Colombia, but he says the situation was relatively calm at grocery stores, so he was surprised to hear about the hoarding of products at stores here in San Antonio.

Pelaez says airport workers in Colombia were wearing masks and gloves, and many passengers also had masks.

“Once we got back to Miami, we saw few masks, and then we got to the airport in Texas, and there were zero masks,” said Pelaez.

Meanwhile, Colombia’s President Ivan Duque has ordered the full closure of the country’s borders, allowing only restricted air travel.

Duque had already closed the borders with Venezuela before he announced Monday  on Twitter that the measure will be extended to the borders with Panama, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil until May 30.