National health regulator Cofepris found concentrations of bacteria higher than permitted in several coastal destinations in Mexico, including two of the country’s most popular beaches.
As part of its annual pre-summer vacation beach monitoring, Cofepris (Federal Commission for the Protection Against Health Risks) reviewed beaches in all 17 coastal states and examined thousands of samples taken at 289 beaches between mid-June and early July.
La #Cofepris alertó que Playa del Cuale, en #PuertoVallarta, rebasó los límites permitidos de bacterias, por lo que fue clasificada como no apta para uso recreativo en este periodo vacacional.
Noticiero en #ImagenTVGDL con @erickbreguer#NoticiasImagen pic.twitter.com/wO7DLRsYmt
— Imagen TV Guadalajara (@ImagenTVGDL) July 13, 2026
Most destinations met federal health standards (98.3% to be exact), but five sites exceeded the established microbiological limit for recreational activities.
Among the five deemed not suitable for swimming were Cuale Beach in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, and Main Beach in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.
Playa del Cuale is located in one of the principal tourist areas of Puerto Vallarta. The health alert refers to the specific point analyzed on that beach and not to all the beaches in the municipality or the entire Banderas Bay area, which extends north into the state of Nayarit.
Main Beach, or la Playa Principal, is one of the sites in Puerto Escondido with the greatest economic activity — tourism, commerce and fishing — in the world-renowned destination.
The other three beaches found to pose health risks for bathers are Tijuana Beach in Baja California and José Martí and Tumbao beaches, both in Veracruz.
Cofepris is already working with local authorities and their respective Clean Beaches Committees to implement sanitation and surveillance actions that will allow the water quality to be restored in the shortest possible time.
The monitoring tests are conducted in conjunction with state health authorities and the National Network of Public Health Laboratories immediately before holiday periods, as water conditions can vary due to rain, urban discharges, ocean currents, tides, sewer failures and temporary increases in tourist influx.
The sanitary quality of seawater is determined by searching for enterococci (bacteria used as indicators of fecal contamination) and the possible presence of other microorganisms capable of causing disease.
Samples from the five beaches cited as unsuitable were found to have more than 200 enterococci per 100 milliliters, the maximum allowed by the Health Ministry in accordance with World Health Organization recommendations.
With reports from Informador and Proceso
