The Cabildo de Lanzarote hosted a meeting on Tuesday in which the document ‘Procedure of action before the detection of a suspected case of Covid-19 infection at the Lanzarote-César Manrique Airport and in the establishments was approved accommodation ‘, which includes among its objectives to control the transmission chain as soon as possible if a positive case is detected among passengers and tourists arriving on the island.
In this sense, the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Mª Dolores Corujo, points out that “undoubtedly the tourist recovery is an aspiration for the island economy, but it can only take place under necessary sanitary controls that allow both the local population and their own tourists who visit us feel safe, a goal that we have been focused on since the coronavirus pandemic was declared. ”
For his part, the island councilor for Tourism Promotion, Ángel Vázquez, highlights that the action procedure, inspired by the ‘Strategy for early detection, surveillance and control of Covid-19’ of the Ministry of Health, “is the result of the coordinated work of the Cabildo, Lanzarote Foreign Promotion Society (SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote), Lanzarote Tourist Federation (FTL), Security and Emergency Consortium, Canary Health Service (SCS) and Canary Emergency Service (SUC), in collaboration with AENA ” , a public company in charge of managing the Lanzarote airport.
Action protocols
The aforementioned document contemplates the action protocols to be followed both at the Lanzarote-César Manrique Airport and in the island’s accommodation establishments in order to detect passengers or tourists who present symptoms suspected of infection with the Covid-19 coronavirus, and their instead of identifying the so-called “close contacts” of the possible positive case and trying to avoid a chain of transmission from occurring in this way.
In this way, it is established that if the thermal imaging cameras installed in the Airport arrivals terminal detect a high body temperature -more than 37.5 degrees Celsius- in any passenger, this passenger will not be able to access public areas or come into contact with other individuals and It must be submitted to the controls established by Foreign Health. Likewise, the “close contacts” will be identified, that is, those who have traveled located within a two-seat radius around the affected person, as well as the flight personnel with whom they have had contact, in order to undergo home quarantine and a PCR test if the positive in Covid-19 is confirmed. In order to be localized,
As for the accommodation establishments, the document establishes that in the event that a guest presents symptoms, they must -as will be informed upon arrival- request health care through the telephone number 900112061 of the Canary Health Service, which will contact the establishment to coordinate the activation of the protocol and indicate the corresponding instructions. A health team will assess the need for the affected person to receive hospital care or be quarantined where they are staying or in another concerted establishment. In the same way, their “close contacts” will be identified, who will have to undergo quarantine and a PCR test if the positive is confirmed.
In addition to Mª Dolores Corujo and Ángel Vázquez, the meeting was attended by the island’s Security and Emergency and Health advisers, Francisco Javier Aparicio and Juan Manuel Sosa, respectively; the deputy director general for Security and Emergencies of the Canary Islands Government, Monsterrat Román; the insular director of the Health Area, Noelia Umpiérrez; the manager of the José Molina Orosa Hospital, José Luis Aparicio; the director of Primary Care Nursing, Victoria Estévez; the medical coordinator of the SUC, José María El Moga; the manager of Health and Safety Services Management (GSC) of the Canarian Government, Elías Castro; the CEO of SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote, Héctor Fernández; the president of the FTL, Susana Pérez; the director of the Lanzarote airport, Juan Carlos Peg; the chief colonel of the Lanzarote Military Aerodrome, Nicolás Ramírez; the manager of the Lanzarote Security and Emergency Consortium, Enrique Espinosa; the commercial director of Hospiten Lanzarote, Sergio Rodríguez; as well as representatives of the Civil Guard and the National Police.
