Lanzarote will continue for at least another week in alert level 4 and will also face additional restrictions during the Carnival days, as in the rest of the archipelago. This was agreed this Thursday by the Canary Islands Government Council, after re-analyzing the situation of all the islands.
In that weekly evaluation, it has been agreed to lower the alert level in Tenerife, which now goes to 1, while the rest of the islands maintain the one they already had. In the case of Lanzarote, it is the only one that is at the maximum level, 4, while Gran Canaria remains one more week at level 3.
"All the islands are improving, but they are not improving enough", said the spokesman for the Canarian Government, Julio Pérez, during the press conference after the Government Council. In this regard, he recalled that there are some rated indicators that make the level changes "relatively automatic."
In Lanzarote, despite the improvement in recent days, five of those eight indicators remain at the maximum risk level, including hospital pressure in the ICU, as well as the cumulative incidence at seven and fourteen days and the incidence in the elderly.
Along with the weekly evaluation of the levels in each island, the Governing Council has also agreed on additional measures on the occasion of Carnival, to avoid concentrations that may lead to new outbreaks. These measures will be in force from this Friday the 12th to Sunday the 21st, although they will have less impact on Lanzarote, since it already has greater restrictions due to alert level 4.
The main novelty for the island during these days will be a new reduction in the number of non-cohabiting people who can meet. Since the last time the rules regulating each level were updated, in Lanzarote a maximum of two people were allowed, which could be increased to four if they met on the terrace of a bar or restaurant. However, from this Friday and for ten days, the maximum will be two people, both in hospitality and in any other public or private space. In addition, even if they are cohabiting, there can be no more than two people at the tables on the terraces.
As for the rest of the islands, those that are at level 1 and 2 will have meetings limited to six people and Gran Canaria, which is at level three, to four people. "This is a limit that is superimposed on the general rules and that applies to these carnival days," stressed the spokesman for the Executive.
In addition, a curfew is established for all the islands from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., which coincides with the one that Lanzarote already has for being on alert 4. And the same happens with other measures that will be extended these days to all the islands but that were already in force in Lanzarote, such as consumption at the bar.
The agreement also includes the intensification of controls in ports and airports of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands to avoid travel on the islands where entries and exits are restricted, which are Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.
As for regular urban and metropolitan land public transport of passengers, its capacity is limited to 50% and "the surveillance of urban and metropolitan land transport will also be reinforced during peak hours, in order to avoid crowds."
Finally, the Government also emphasizes that "parties, festivals and other popular events are not allowed, which also implies the prohibition of convening acts, celebrations, contests or any other type of events that may incite the meeting of people or that involve situations that hinder or make it impossible to comply with general preventive measures, such as the agglomeration of people, staying in a number higher than that established for each alert level, maintaining the interpersonal safety distance or non-compliance with capacity limits."
