Health

More personnel needed for port and airport health controls

Tourists arriving in Palma. | Govern de les Illes Balears

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma22/06/2020 12:55

Mar Faraco, president of the association which represents employees of Spain's exterior health service, insists that there needs to be reinforcement of personnel for health controls of tourists who will be arriving at Balearic ports and airports. On Monday, she said that the 150 doctors who are currently available are insufficient to cover all the ports and airports. She noted that in Ibiza, the work is in fact being carried out by National Police and the regional government, as Sanidad Exterior, the branch of the national ministry of health responsible for external health security, doesn't have its own unit on the island.

The doctors will be seeking to control the importing of coronavirus cases, but Faraco referred to the "peculiarities" of both the Balearics and the Canaries because of the large numbers of tourists.

Asked about the use of PCR testing for tourists arriving in the Balearics, she indicated that organisation for this would be "very complex". The important thing is that people who arrive are from countries with similar epidemiological situations to that in the Balearics. For other specific countries, "I would ask for a test at both the point of origin and at the destination". Testing all tourists would be "impractical", while it isn't a panacea, as it does not ensure that contagion has not occurred or may occur later. Control and a quick response in the case of contagion are vital.