Chemists can now supervise self-diagnosis tests and send the results

In July last year, chemists in the Canary Islands offered to help with the control of the pandemic by supervising self-diagnostic antigen tests that they sell in the 800 pharmacies in the islands and communicating the results to the health authorities.

Six months, two waves, and nearly 200,000 confirmed infections in the archipelago later, the Ministry of Health, has finally launched this new system with the collaboration of the chemists.

The president of the College of Pharmacists in Las Palmas, Loreto Gómez, said, "At last this system has been applied, it may be late, but it’s here, which is important for the good of society and to relieve the Canary Health Service.”

The system has been launched two after pharmacies were given the ability to issue Covid Certificates. The tests must be taken in the pharmacies under their supervision, then any positive results will be communicated to the Canary Islands Health Service to be recorded in the patient's medical history so that the necessary medical follow-up can be initiated.

“This service is voluntary and not all chemists have adequate space or available staff to dedicate someone to supervise the tests,” explains Gómez.

“If the result is positive, we communicate it to the SCS through their web page, with all the correct legal information, and with this the entire protocol and process is activated," says Gómez.

At the moment there is no official list of chemists that offer this service, but those that do have put up posters informing clients that they do.

It is important to remember that pharmacies are not authorized to certify diagnostic tests that are negative. This is reserved for the 128 laboratories, clinics, and private medical centres authorized by the Canary Islands Government Health Department to perform antigen or PCR tests. The cost of these types of tests ranges between 25 and 140 euros.