The passenger who flew to Lanzarote with Covid-19 last May was finally sanctioned with a fine of 1,500 euros, for a “very serious” disobedience infraction. That was what the Government Subdelegation of Ciudad Real established, according to the resolution that La Voz has now accessed.
Although the passenger was a resident on the island, the sanctioning file was initiated in Ciudad Real, which was where he had traveled to attend the funeral of his mother, who died from coronavirus. Once there, having been in contact with a positive case, he underwent a PCR test. However, without waiting for the result and without observing the mandatory isolation in these cases, he traveled first to Madrid and then, after taking a flight at the Barajas airport, to Lanzarote.
It was while he was on the flight that the health authorities of Ciudad Real tried to contact him to inform him that he had tested positive in the test, but they could not locate him. Finally, through a relative, they learned that he was on the plane, so they informed the Civil Guard in Lanzarote, who went to wait for the flight upon its arrival on the island.
In addition, numerous health and emergency personnel, as well as staff from various NGOs, joined the agents, leaving one of the most spectacular scenes experienced on the island since the beginning of the pandemic. Initially, it was ordered to isolate the 140 passengers on the flight, with the Cabildo providing a hotel for those who did not have housing on the island to quarantine. The next day, that isolation was finally reduced to the 13 people who were sitting in the closest seats, and all of them eventually tested negative in the tests.
As for the affected passenger, as he did not present symptoms, he was transferred to his home, in the municipality of Tinajo, to maintain isolation there.
For its part, the Civil Guard made a report that led to this sanction. The resolution of the Government Subdelegation indicates as complainant the Security Unit of the Civil Guard at the Lanzarote airport, which was who the health authorities of Ciudad Real notified.
The file indicates that the man boarded this flight without carrying out “the mandatory measure of home isolation ordered by the health authorities, given that he was under epidemiological monitoring for health reasons, decreeing that he should remain in preventive isolation for having been in close contact with a confirmed case”. Therefore, he is considered responsible for an “act of disobedience of the limitations on freedom of movement agreed by the competent authority during the validity of the state of alarm”.
In this resolution, issued after the events and against which an appeal was possible, a sanction of 1,500 euros was established, although with a possible reduction of up to 50% in case he made the payment voluntarily in the first fifteen days after receiving the notification; and 20% if he did so, also voluntarily, from that date.
