It was confirmed last night that one of the 86 migrants who arrived on the south coast of Gran Canaria last Tuesday has tested positive for coronavirus. The person has been isolated from the rest of the combined group who were spotted in two pateras before being moved to Arguineguín port for health checks, and then immediately confined on a ship in the capital’s main port of Las Palmas the Puerto de La Luz.
Another foreign citizen, who also arrived that same day on Fuerteventura on a similar boat, has too been separated from that group due to the possibility that he is also a carrier of the Covid-19, although, the sources have indicated, it they have not yet been confirmed as positive.
The Ministry of Health is carrying out mass testing on all foreigners who arrive on the islands irregularly by sea in this manner. An 8 fold increase has been recorded in migrants attempting to reach the islands via this maritime route from the African coast this year. All who arrive from abroad are obliged to spend a minimum 14-days in quarantine, just like any tourists who arrive from outside Spain during the State of Emergency, and indeed any Spanish citizens returning from abroad.
The mandatory quarantine order has been in place since May 15, ordered by the Ministry of Health, and is expected to last at least until July. Since then, at least four migrants have tested positive for corona virus, three adult males and one child, all of whom have been separated from the rest of the occupants of the four boats on which they arrived to the Archipelago.
