The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT), which has been demanding Covid tests for tourists for months, has now requested that the tests be "fast and economical" and that a homogeneous testing protocol be implemented throughout the European Union.
In a statement released in Lanzarote by Asolan, the tourism association made this request after the announcement made this Wednesday by the Government of Spain, which will require a negative PCR for tourists from areas considered at risk, and the publication in the BOE of the list of countries to which these tests will be required.
For the Confederation, the Government's proposal comes "late", but at the same time states that it would be "very costly" for travelers and "not very operative in view of the advances that already exist in Covid-19 detection tests." CEHAT stresses that "the high cost of PCRs and the wait involved in these tests to obtain results represent a further obstacle to international tourism, which is added to all those that have been added during the pandemic."
It should be remembered that PCR is still the primary system for detecting Covid, given that rapid tests were practically discarded after the first wave. Currently, the only tests that are done in a complementary way are antigen tests - which are faster and cheaper - but in Spain only the community of Madrid is using them massively for diagnosis, since they do not have the same reliability. In fact, experts have repeatedly warned that due to the sensitivity of these tests, they only serve for cases of patients with symptoms and in the first days, because otherwise they can give false negatives.
Unifying criteria in the EU: "The tourism sector hangs by a thread"
However, the Confederation asks the Government "not to limit itself to requiring the performance of PCR, but to demand that international travelers perform more economical tests that provide reliable results quickly to facilitate their access to all travelers and guarantee safe mobility and tourism." In this regard, it points out that "the European Commission document on COVID-19 testing strategies of October 28, 2020 already mentions that the use of rapid antigen tests could be included in the future, after approval by the EU."
"These health measures should be extended and applied urgently throughout Europe to unify the tests and not be limited to a measure adopted exclusively by Spain. While this is happening, the Spanish health authorities should implement their own detection system to speed up the process," say from the employers' association. "We cannot wait for this unification of criteria to eternalize the process. The tourism sector hangs by a thread and strong measures must be taken immediately throughout the EU," says its president, Jorge Marichal.
