The president of the Canary Islands, Angel Victor Torres, who was in Tenerife yesterday to visit the new 24-hour mass vaccination centre at the pabellon Santiago Martín in La Laguna, defended the decision for Tenerife to be in Level 3, saying: "There are some who are doing wrong but unfortunately the result is that others suffer, the essential objective is to bend the curve, maintain unity, and have a medium and long-term vision in the fight against Covid-19.”
He was replying to criticism of the Governing Council’s decision to increase measures on the island, that particularly affect the hospitality industry, stressing that “it is essential for the basic structure of the Canary Islands economy to arrive with low incidence figures for the whole archipelago, not only in July and August but also into autumn when the main season for tourism in the islands begins.”
"We are open to suggestions and contributions from the Tenerife hospitality sectors affected by the increase in sanitary restrictions, we are happy to seek shared solutions," he said, adding that “any decision must be aimed at stopping the increase in infections, because with high accumulated incidences, countries that emit tourism, which is key to our economic recovery, will not place us on their green lists.
He continued that “Someone must be doing something wrong because infections are increasing, and we must bend the curve and stop the number of infections. This is not only for health essential reasons but also for the economy in the medium and long term.”
Torres said that it is not an easy decision to place an entire island into increased restrictions, which is why it didn’t happen the week before, but the current data gave them no option, and the measures applied are the ones that have worked elsewhere. This is why he called for the responsibility of society and all authorities, as well as to maintain the vigilance of local police, and city and local councils to that the restrictions established by the Government of the Canary Islands are conformed to.
Torres, who visited the Santiago Martín pavilion accompanied by the president of the Tenerife Cabildo, Pedro Martín, and by the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, said that up to 12,000 people can be attended to in 24 hours at this vaccination centre, which will contribute to the goal of having 70% of the population immunized before July 31st, a date which is a month earlier than the original end of summer target.
"The objective is to vaccinate, the more people vaccinated, the more resistant we are to the virus, and the fewer infections that will occur, we have to win the game, this battle has not been won and the war is not over, there are key weeks left", he said, and stressed that "we are in the final part of this hard journey."
