The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands has decided to extend for one more week, until January 17, the screening to contain the transmission of SARS-COV-2, through diagnostic tests of active infection (PDIA) to passengers entering the Canary Islands from the rest of the national territory, by air or sea. This extension will be published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC) and will be in force from Monday, January 11.
Between December 18 and January 6, a total of 94,610 passengers arrived at the Canary Islands airports from other Spanish regions. All of them had to go through the control point set up by the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) in the six airports that operate with national flights, where they had to accredit, by means of a certificate, a negative result in a PDIA carried out with a maximum of 72 hours before their arrival at the airport.
Of these 94,610 passengers, 80,877, that is, 85%, provided a certificate of negative PDIA upon arrival. Of this total, 61,850 did not stay in tourist establishments, being, for the most part, residents of the Canary Islands who returned to the Islands to spend the Christmas holidays.
The remaining 15% of the 94,610 passengers who did not provide a negative PDIA certificate had to remain in isolation until obtaining a negative result from a diagnostic test performed at the destination. Passengers residing in the Canary Islands who arrived without a PDIA made at the origin were given the possibility of arranging an appointment through the telephone line 900 112 061 for the performance of the test free of charge, while non-residents were provided with a list of laboratories authorized by the SCS in which to perform the PDIA within 72 hours after their arrival.
Regarding resident passengers who traveled with PDIA and had the test done in one of the laboratories of the network arranged by the SCS in the Peninsula, a total of 196 positives were detected (176 by PCR and 20 by antigen test), which is equivalent to a positivity percentage of 1%. Most of them occurred in Madrid, where 114 positives were detected in the 6,839 PCRs performed, which represents a positivity rate of 1.67%. In Granada, a positivity rate of 4.23% was detected, since 21 of the 496 PCRs performed were positive, while in Toledo, with six positives of the 196 PCRs performed, the positivity rate is 3.55%.
Operation of the device
When a passenger arrives in the Canary Islands from another region of the national territory, they must submit a certificate of negative PDIA at the control points established for this purpose by the Ministry of Health in the Canary Islands airports that receive national flights. Travelers who make an airport transfer between islands must go to the control of the first airport where they disembark to present their negative diagnostic test certificate.
Travelers who did not present the certificate, or that it was not validated, are identified, registered and are placed to perform isolation until obtaining the negative result of a diagnostic test at the destination.
The diagnostic tests of active infection admitted, at the passenger's choice, are PCR, rapid antigen detection tests or Amplification Mediated by Transcription (TMA).
The Ministry of Health reminds that the diagnostic test, both at origin and destination, is free for travelers residing in the Canary Islands who come from the rest of the national territory and perform the test in the Eurofins Megalab centers arranged by the Canary Islands Health Service for this purpose. In the remaining cases, the passenger will assume the cost of performing the PDIA, which will have a special price in the centers arranged by the SCS.
