Just seven days before the start of the Arrecife Carnival, the autocovid at the Fairgrounds, where the stage would theoretically be, is still functioning. The Lanzarote Health Area points out that they learned "through the press" about the decree by the mayor of Arrecife that revokes the land transfer.
"Nobody has spoken to us," said the director of the Lanzarote Health Area, Noelia Umpiérrez, on Radio Lanzarote – Onda Cero. "As of today, we still have no communication and I would have liked them to sit down. Whether it's the Festivals Councilor, the mayor, or whoever, because when I heard the news yesterday, I contacted the rest of the team and nobody knew anything," she assures.
"I would have liked us to sit down, because what they intend is to coexist, and I'm not saying it's not possible, but we have no idea what the City Council is proposing there," explained the director, who assures that with "simple coordination", it might have been solved "much earlier.”
In this regard, the City Council claims that they tried to meet with the Cabildo, which is who was originally granted the land so that they could make it available to the Health Department. Specifically, Ástrid Pérez's decree mentions that councilors Encarna Páez and Echedey Eugenio sent a letter to the Island Corporation "inviting the president to attend the Consistorial headquarters on Thursday, February 10 at 5:30 p.m.", but notes that she did not attend. Apart from that, it does not cite any other efforts to address the issue with the Cabildo or directly with the Health Department, which is who the facility depends on.
Health Department considers “normalizing” testing in Health Centers
Regarding the possibility of sharing the space, which is what the City Council proposes, Noelia Umpiérrez believes that it would be feasible to place the stage in the front part of the autocovid, since the health team is behind. However, she warns that there are more elements. "If they are going to put up stands and so on, we would have to change the entrance circuit," she emphasizes, insisting that there has been a lack of communication from the City Council.
She even points out that the healthcare workers finish their testing day at six in the afternoon, and that therefore they could “organize the schedules” to be able to hold the carnival events from that time.
Noelia Umpiérrez has also announced that the Lanzarote Health Area is considering the possibility of making a change in the performance of PCRs, similar to the one that has already been made with the vaccination process, which has currently returned exclusively to the island's health centers, eliminating the island vaccination point. This same strategy is the one that, according to Umpiérrez, is being considered for performing tests to detect Covid.
"It's not something that is done overnight, and we didn't intend to do it yet either. It's something for the near future," Umpiérrez detailed.