Tenerife is to remain on level 3 alert for at least another week with a 10pm to 6am curfew, bars and restaurants closed inside and nightclubs and discos still banned.
Government officials yesterday ruled it is
still too early to relax the restrictions which will remain until the next
review on April 15th.
Although coronavirus cases are falling, they
say the drop isn’t enough and of three new deaths reported yesterday, two were
in Tenerife; a 67-year-old man and a 96-year-old woman, both associated with
individual family outbreaks.
President of the Canary government, Ángel
Víctor Torres defended the curfew, saying: “It is effective.”
He hoped the time would come when, due to herd
immunity, it would not be necessary.
Tenerife is the island most popular with Brits
who will be hoping to return as soon as travel restrictions are lifted, both by
Spain and the UK. Spain is due to end its State of Emergency at the end of May
but individual regions may continue to enforce their own safety regulations to
prevent further Covid outbreaks.
As well as the curfew, Tenerife will continue
to limit meetings to four people (except for those living together) and
maintain capacity restrictions in shops, on the terraces of bars and
restaurants, beaches, markets, gyms and cinemas , as well as social distancing
and the obligation to wear masks outside.
Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura will also
continue on level 3 until next Thursday and all three islands maintain their
perimeter closure; you can only enter and leave for a justified reason ( ie
work, care for a dependent family member, return to a family home or
reservation in a hotel accommodation, among others).
Spokesman for the regional Executive, Julio
Pérez said the impact of coronavirus in Tenerife has been decreasing, although
not below the figure that was sought.
In Gran Canaria, numbers are stabilising at
just over 100 daily infections and in Fuerteventura the situation is said to be
improving although the Government hopes it will do so even more.
The other Canary islands of La Palma, La
Gomera and El Hierro remain at alert level 1, the lowest in force in the
archipelago. Here, the curfew is from midnight until 6am and meetings allowed
with a maximum of ten people.
Lanzarote, which had reached the maximum alert
level on January 4th of this year, is now at level 2, with a curfew from 11pm
to 6am and meetings limited to a maximum of six.
Despite the controversy over AstraZeneca, Mr
Pérez said the Canary Islands maintains the forecast of reaching 70%
vaccination this summer.
The Canary Islands continue to vaccinate with
Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca – the latter limited to the age range between
60 and 69 years – and await the arrival of Janssen with 300,000 doses for Spain
on the 15th.