Coronavirus cases on Lanzarote appear to have been successfully contained after nine contacts traced to the British tourist who tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday have resulted negative.
The case was discovered when the tourist and her partner arrived at their hotel where the partner immediately registered a high temperature. The protocols in such a situation were activated and both tourists were given PCR tests. The man with the fever tested negative twice; however, the woman tested positive.
As they had just arrived, contact had been kept to a minimum, and nine tests carried out on possible contacts tested negative yesterday.
Meanwhile, on Fuerteventura, more evidence of a serious outbreak in Morocco and Western Sahara came as 47 migrants on a patera containing 61 passengers tested positive. All have been isolated and are said to be in a good state of health.
Canarian health minister Blas Trujillo has requested that the coronavirus statistics relating to migrants in intercepted boats be placed “at the margin” of the official statistics, because they are not technically Canarian outbreaks.
Migrants account for 72 of the 78 active cases on Fuerteventura and nine of the eleven cases on Lanzarote. Trujillo argues that, because these cases were not contracted on the Canaries and have been fully contained, they should not be included in the main body of Spain’s national statistics.
Trujillo also said that the Canarian government had presented the Spanish government with a pilot scheme that would permit the compulsory testing of arrivals from worst-affected source countries such as Brazil, Mexico and the USA, although the Canarian government would still prefer tests at origin.
