Overview
- Cofepris announced on July 10–11 that five beaches exceeded the World Health Organization enterococci guideline and were classified as not apt for direct-contact recreation.
- The affected sites are Playa de Tijuana (Baja California), Playa del Cuale (Puerto Vallarta/Bahía de Banderas, Jalisco), Playa Principal (Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca), and Playa José Martí and Playa Tumbao (Veracruz).
- The finding follows a national pre-vacation campaign that collected 2,279 seawater samples at 393 verification points across 76 destinations between June 15 and July 1 to assess coastal safety.
- Cofepris used the WHO threshold of 200 enterococci per 100 mL to flag contamination because higher counts signal likely fecal pollution and raise the risk of gastrointestinal, skin, eye and ear infections for swimmers.
- Federal, state and local authorities have begun sanitation works, installed warning signs, and shared the full dataset with SEMARNAT for Playas Mx while continued sampling will determine when the five beaches can be reclassified; 284 beaches (98.3% of those evaluated) currently meet the criteria for recreational use.