The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, announced yesterday that the regional Security Board will meet today to analyze the situation of the pandemic in the Archipelago, especially in Tenerife due to its high accumulated incidence rates, to apply a ‘stronger hand’ to the violators of the measures against the pandemic in force today in the Islands, whether individuals or businesses.
He also highlighted the agreement reached on Wednesday with the catering and hospitality sector so that they can open their interior spaces, "with the highest sanitary protocols in place, with the greatest possible control of the people who access their premises, with the registration of their data, as well as with 10% of those vaccinated within 50% of the allowed capacity in those spaces – which is, 20% of the total authorized”.
According to Torres, "the work of the police and the security forces as well as personal and collective responsibility of the public, are now key to curbing contagion and definitively defeating the virus while reaching 70% herd immunity."
However, Torres did not hide the fact that "there is great concern for the situation of the pandemic," and stressed that the data for the islands, "is getting worse day by day, and now, not only in Tenerife”. In addition, he warned that, after the loss of the state of alarm and the order of the TSJC, the regional government now has "fewer tools", since it can no longer implement a curfew or legally control groups. "The state of alarm has finished and those issues that were our competence have been eliminated by the TSJC order," he said.
Torres once again made it clear that all the decisions that his Government has made regarding restrictions have been based "on scientific criteria." Thus, he has detailed that the interior closure was one of the measures taken in different islands, "whatever it was, when it went to level 3, with islands that have even reached 4".
Likewise, he stated that “this set of limitations has been shown to be effective, since in the weeks following their application the curve bent and contagions were controlled, now, the instruments are less and, therefore, compliance is essential with the few restrictions that we have at our disposal”. He ended by saying that, "now, as when the state of alarm ended, there is nothing to celebrate."
