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Now it’s the Canaries

Andrew EdePalma21/08/2020 01:29

W hen the UK government extended its quarantine to travellers returning from the Balearics and the Canaries, this seemed unjust. In the Balearics, we defended the situation, believing that the islands were safe. This was a defence that was to erode all too rapidly, with Majorca’s data the principal cause for this erosion.

While we questioned the justice at the end of July, I suggested that we should spare a thought for the Canaries. A long way from us here, a long way from the centres of mainland outbreaks, the Canaries were barely affected. In calling for a more “coherent” approach, the CEO of easyJet Holidays pointed out that there had been an infection rate of only two per 100,000 inhabitants over a seven-day period.

Tui have been diverting German holidaymakers from the Balearics to the Canaries, the German government having adopted an approach that Garry Wilson of easyJet was advocating. But now, and all of a sudden, the infection rate has risen to 34 per 100,000. When this level was reached in the Balearics, the subsequent advance in the infection rate was swift. The fifty threshold was breached, and Germany had no other choice. In the Canaries, it is said that there is panic. You can understand why.

The call in the Canaries is once more for “clear and specific measures”, such as testing travellers at origin and on arrival. The Canaries have consistently been insistent on such an approach; it has not been adopted.