Puerto Rico’s plans to encourage more tourism from the U.S. mainland have backfired as COVID-19 cases have spiked at the same time that the island has seen more visitors—and more complaints that many who come are not following safety guidelines to minimize the virus’ spread.

Days after Puerto Rico had launched a campaign to promote that the island would “formally reopen for in-bound tourism on July 15” with new safety mandates for visitors, Gov. Wanda Vázquez pushed the date to August 15. She also rolled back multiple reopening efforts, mandating bars, gyms, marinas, theaters and casinos to close down again until July 31.

“We’ve reached a level where we need to take more restrictive measures,” she said.

The governor announced other rollbacks, including the prohibition of alcohol sales after 7 p.m., limiting restaurant capacity to 50 percent and restricting beach access to only those who are exercising. The ongoing 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew will also remain in place.

Vázquez announced the changes as multiple social media videos went viral over the weekend, showing tourists fighting at Puerto Rico’s main international airport and violating face mask mandates as well as social distancing rules.

Puerto Rico was initially praised for being one of the first U.S. jurisdictions to put drastic measures in place such as implementing an islandwide curfew and banning cruise ships as well as closing schools and all nonessential businesses to avoid overwhelming the island’s already fragile health care system back in March.

But a recent surge in COVID-19 cases has coincided with Puerto Rico’s efforts to reopen nonessential businesses and tourist attractions. Over the past week, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases jumped by more than a 1,000 while the number of probable cases increased by almost 1,300.

On Wednesday, the island of 3.2 million people reported more than 4,300 confirmed coronavirus cases, more than 8,700 probable ones and at least 185 deaths, including that of a 13-year-old child, according to Puerto Rico’s Health Department.

Small business owners working in tourist areas such as Condado and Piñones have been publicly saying they’ve encountered many situations in which tourists don’t want to comply with Vázquez’s executive orders mandating people wear masks and practice physical distancing.

“They don’t listen to us. We had a situation in which we had to call the cops because they got aggressive after we told them they had to leave if they had no masks,” Belkis Mora, who works at a bar in the Condado told Telemundo Puerto Rico. “We’ve had many incidents like this and it’s very difficult.”

Modesta Irizarry, a resident of Loíza, worries that tourists will continue to come to the island since many flights to Puerto Rico are very inexpensive. A one-way plane from cities such as Orlando, New York City, Austin or Philadelphia in August can cost between $29 to $39.

“We can’t stop people from coming, but our leaders can come up with a prevention plan to educate people,” Irizarry told NBC News, “that tells people what they can and cannot do in a public space. The governor said last week that it was the tourists’ responsibility to wear masks and practice social distancing. But I think the government also needs to take responsibility.”

Jorge Argüelles Morán, president of the Centro Unido de Detallistas, a nonprofit representing the interests of small-business owners in Puerto Rico, told WAPA-TV in Spanish that “no one is talking about how are we supposed to control the people infringing upon the executive order when they are in a public establishment. You can’t assume that the business owner has to be the one to intervene because we don’t have the power to enforce that kind of stuff.”

Some of the new safety measures require passengers traveling to Puerto Rico to present a negative molecular COVID-19 test that is to be taken no more than 72 hours prior to arrival. Travelers must also fill out a travel declaration form from the Puerto Rico Health Department and wear face masks in public areas in order to avoid fines.

José Reyes of the Puerto Rico National Guard said on local television that they’ve seen about 5,000 passengers coming to Puerto Rico over the last five days from states considered to be coronavirus hotspots.

“It’s an alarming amount of travelers” he said, adding that over 30 flights have landed in Puerto Rico’s main international airport from Florida, “which is now considered a hotspot, therefore, heightening the risk of contagion in Puerto Rico.”

Reyes estimates that only 20 percent of the tourists who have recently come have complied with the molecular COVID-19 test requirement and many others have arrived with no face masks.

Discover Puerto Rico, the not-for-profit entity that works with the government to promote the island as a vacation destination, acknowledged to reporters it’s not the right time for a visit.

“It’s unfortunate, all the altercations that have happened between visitors and residents,” Anamarys Caratini, a Discover Puerto Rico spokesperson, told Telemundo Puerto Rico in Spanish. “Our message now is that Puerto Rico isn’t prepared to receive tourists. It’s better that they stay at home until the virus is contained,” she said, adding they can come and enjoy at a later time.

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