Canaries Government wants facility for extra measures when state of alarm ends

The president of the Canary Islands has today asked the Central Government of Spain for a mechanism or decree law, that will allow them to implement extraordinary measures in the archipelago if needed, when the state of alarm finishes on May 9th.

Ángel Víctor Torres said that when the implementation of restrictions becomes regional, there are some things that they are not able to enforce without something giving them the legal right to do so, such as a curfew or freedom of movement.

Among the extraordinary measures they have requested are controls in ports and airports to be mandatory, mechanisms to control the meeting of group sizes, both in public and private spaces, as well as the need to have a PCR or negative antigen test to travel between the islands.

During Torres’ request, the spokesman for Nueva Canarias, Luis Campos, said he considers it a mistake to lift the state of alarm because "we are 90 days away from achieving herd immunity in the Canary Islands, after a very tough process in which we have restrictions on people’s individual and collective freedom, so to throw this away now is a backward step.”