In devastating news for the islands, The UK govenrnment has announced the closure of the Canary Islands “travel corridor”. Anyone arriving in the UK from the Canaries from 4 am on Saturday 12th December will have to self-isolate for 14 days, or pay for a PCR test after 5 days under the new “test and release” scheme.

After a day of misinformation and errors caused by a remarkable new Canarian law, we feel it’s necessary to clear up a couple of matters that are causing widespread confusion.

Spain’s senate has given the green light for British citizens to continue to enjoy the right to vote and stand in local elections after Brexit. The upper house in Madrid approved the proposal by 236 votes to 23 abstentions last week.

Deepika Harjani was the Brexit officer with the British Consulate in Tenerife before her recent appointment as the regional co-ordinator for Age in Spain, and, with the end of the transition period almost upon us, she's been pretty busy. Not too busy to pop into the Gazette office with Honorary Consul Sue Thain for a chat, though.

90-year -old Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to be vaccinated against Covid-19 at 6.45 am this morning, as the NHS launches its vaccination programme.

Lanzarote vet Jane Burke remembers some Christmas callouts and reminds us of a few festive no-nos.

A Portuguese company has submitted a request to install four wind turbines in waters off the coast of Lanzarote. The resulting wind park would generate 50 megawatts of power.

Ian Lane reports on UD Lanzarote’s shaky start to the season, and a brilliant fund-raising competition with unbeatable prizes.

Lanzarote ended the week with a slight rise in active cases, caused mainly by low numbers of recoveries. The island currently has 66 cases, one of which is on the Covid ward at the Dr José Molina Orosa Hospital.

Sweden appears to be quietly abandoning its “light touch” approach to the coronavirus, as it suffers one of the worst infection rates in Europe as Christmas approaches. However, Canarian tourism authorities will be hoping that any future measures will not affect one of the islands oldest and most reliable tourism markets.

October in Lanzarote always feels like the secret end to summer. Whilst many people in the UK and Europe are hunkering down for autumn, we are lucky to still have around eight hours of sunshine a day. This was certainly the case last year as we started the month with plenty of blue skies and just a few wispy clouds. Temperature-wise we were above average with highs of 28 and lows of 20. The final week of the month we saw a change, with a little rainfall and clouds rolling in.

Parties, family get-togethers, hugging, kissing, singing, drinking and gathering in church – Christmas could almost have been designed for the efficient spread of Covid-1. So, in order to reduce the risks of infection, the Canarian government has introduced anti-Covid Christmas measures that set a rule of six for parties and gatherings, and establish a curfew from 1 am to 6 am.

14 environmental and wildlife protection groups have requested that Teguise Council authorises its local police force to set up a special pet unit.

SARA Animals of the month - This time we focus on 11-year-old Yimy and the longtime resident of SARA, Manolo.