SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of the Canary Islands has agreed this Thursday, at its Council meeting, to suspend until next January 31, 2022 the obligation to present the COVID certificate to access tourist accommodation, as announced by the Canarian Executive spokesman, Antonio Olivera.
In the press conference after the Governing Council, the spokesperson indicated that this suspension of sections 1 and 3 of the Decree Law on extraordinary measures in tourism to face the effects of the health and economic crisis produced by the pandemic.
Antonio Olivera specified that this modification means that it will not be necessary to prove that you are free of the disease to stay in tourist areas, either with a diagnostic test, with the vaccination certificate or for having passed the disease, or with a statement responsible for Not having left the islands in the 15 days prior to arrival at the establishment, this in the case of Canarian residents.
Olivera pointed out that the joint proposal of the Ministry of Tourism and Health approved today means that until next January 31 and without prejudice to successive extensions, this condition of access to tourist accommodation is temporarily suspended, at the expense of the evolution that may follow the pandemic.
He stressed that the agreement, which will take effect on the same day of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, is the most convenient legal route for the progressive return to normality, taking into account that the advance of vaccination in Europe and the Canary Islands, as well as the existence of a procedure to control foreign travelers at airports against the pandemic (where a vaccination certificate or COVID diagnostic test with a negative result is already required), it is advisable to do so.
The spokesperson for the Executive stressed that, as the Ministry of Tourism had agreed with the four main Canarian employers in the sector, it was necessary to eliminate the existing double control (airport and accommodation) and relax the rules that were established in the tourist establishments of Canary Islands accommodation for protection against disease and as a measure that helps to strengthen the image of the Canary Islands as a safe destination and guarantor of high standards of protection of the health of its visitors.
Antonio Olivera also stressed that the advance of vaccination continues to be “very positive” in the Canary Islands and is allowing the number of infections to be reduced, which has allowed Fuerteventura to pass today to level 1, so that the eight islands would be at low risk right now.
Olivera emphasized that this is good news for the arrival of the high tourist season, a fact that is reflected in the good hotel occupancy figures that the tourist employers have confirmed and that shows signs that the winter season it can be positive for the Canary Islands.
