Montevideo, Jul 19 (IANS): Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou said that the country is planning to reopen its borders to foreigners who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of the year.

"One of the hardest hit sectors that we have to help to reactivate is tourism. If what we have been experiencing and the new variants allow for it, we plan to open the border in (the southern hemisphere) spring for some people ... who are immunised," he said on Sunday.

The Ministry of Public Health confirmed on July 17 the detection of the first cases of the Delta strain and of two other cases caused by the Alpha and Beta variants of concern.

According to authorities, more than 69 per cent of the Uruguayan population have already received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and over 57 per cent have been fully vaccinated.

For more than four weeks, the South American country has registered fewer infections, active cases, hospitalisations, and deaths after a spike in cases and deaths between April and June of this year.

Uruguay has registered 378,733 cases of Covid-19 and 5,879 deaths.