Brazil-Paraguay border reopens after seven months

Connecting the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu to Paraguay’s bargain shopping paradise Ciudad del Este, the Friendship Bridge is one of the most-used bridges in South America — and the busiest of Brazil’s border crossings. Before the pandemic hit, some 100,000 pedestrians and 40,000 vehicles would cross on an average day.

A notable free-trade zone, Ciudad del Este welcomes droves of Brazilian tourists looking for tax-free goods such as perfumes, electronics, and clothing. Thousands of informal salespeople also join the throngs of shoppers, in search of cheap products they can resell in Brazil for higher prices.

But that bustling tradition of commerce ground to a halt in March, when Paraguay closed its borders to protect itself from imported coronavirus cases, blocking off the Friendship Bridge in the process. At the time, Asunción called Brazil’s Covid-19 response “chaotic,” and Guillermo Sequera, head of the Paraguayan Health Surveillance Board, said the border would remain closed “until the wave in Brazil was over.”

Indeed, closing the border made sense, as 40 percent of all cases in Paraguay were recorded in Ciudad del Este.

Now, the Friendship Bridge is...