The Ministries of Health and Education of the Government of the Canary Islands have started this Wednesday the screening for the diagnosis of Covid-19 in the Infant and Primary schools of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, while on Thursday it will be carried out in all the centers of Arrecife, "as they are the two municipalities with the highest accumulated incidence of coronavirus in the Canary Islands".
As explained by the regional government, this screening is "the result of a recommendation from the Health Emergency Expert Committee." In the case of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, it will be carried out between this Wednesday and Friday, while in the capital of Lanzarote it is expected to be completed in a single day.
"The positive cases that may arise will be communicated to the General Directorate of Public Health and the Primary Care Management, in order to apply the tracking protocol to each positive case," they specify from the Ministry of Education.
Regarding the way in which this screening will be carried out, the Ministry of Health had already told La Voz that the "pooling" technique will be used. This method consists of doing PCRs in groups, so that the extractions obtained from several people (usually around 20) are mixed in a single sample and analyzed jointly. If the result is negative, it is understood that everyone is free of Covid, while if it is positive, then individual tests must be done.
