The Coalición Canaria group in Arrecife believes that the controversy over the request to remove the autocovid from the Fairgrounds for the Carnival celebration “has gotten a bit out of hand”. This was stated by the local secretary of CC in Arrecife and councilor of the capital's government group, Jacobo Lemes, who believes that “whoever took the message” to Health on behalf of the City Council “took it wrong”.
“We have to sit down and negotiate and maybe the autocovid has to be moved two meters. We should talk about it and in any case it would only be three days”, says the councilman. “I find it incredible that a Canarian Health Service and a city council are fighting over moving a meter or not”, he added. However, from Health they affirm that what they were asked was the removal of the autocovid from February 1, and without giving them any alternative.
“I am sure that whoever called the management did not do it for that purpose, and the City Council and the Canarian Health Service have to sit down. Nothing is going to happen”, defended Lemes, who has not clarified who gave the order, nor if the government group has really decided to rectify.
The only thing he has emphasized is that the decision was not made in the Festivities area managed by his party, through the councilor Encarna Paéz. “It is true that I was worried when I saw the news and in Festivities there was no record that anyone had communicated with the health area. I like to work with logic, and the logic is not to remove a service like the autocovid and start the queues in the hospital. Arrecife is the largest population and must have the autocovid. I am sure that neither the Mayor's Office nor any political party will think of removing any service”, added Lemes.
However, he has insisted on the possibility of “moving” the autocovid. “There are I don't know how many square meters, and if autocovid and carnival fit in that area, we will have to sit down at a table with the Canarian Health Service and plan the carnivals, which we have time for”, he defended.
“I don't know how much it costs to set up an autocovid, but I have been in the institution for many years and I know what it costs to set up large infrastructures. We have done international tests such as the OceanLava, which closes almost an island, and I know that everything is possible if there is a will from all the institutions. I have said very clearly that the autocovid service has to continue in Arrecife. Let's sit down and talk about it. And if the fence has to be moved three meters, if they don't know how, let them call me and I'll move the fence for them”, Lemes has stated.
In addition, he has defended that the Carnival should be celebrated, despite the fact that currently the murgas and carnival groups are not able to meet or rehearse, because the alert level 3 in which the island is located prohibits meetings of more than six people.
“I don't know how it is being worked because I only take care of security, but we have to maintain our culture and those people who like carnival. It's just putting common sense and coherence. We cannot do that mass carnival, nor do I think that the float builders are working, but we must make a format to keep our carnival alive”, he insisted.
