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Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

Foundation Investigated for Alleged Mismanagement of Public Funds Meant for Care of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

The 7th Investigative Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has opened a preliminary investigation into the Social Response Foundation Siglo XXI and four of its directors. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Las Palmas filed a complaint against them, alleging crimes that could include forgery of commercial documents, mismanagement, and embezzlement of public funds. The investigation aims to determine whether this nonprofit organisation, and its officials, could have misused public funds intended for the care of unaccompanied migrant minors, during the migration crisis of 2020 that was precipitated by the pandemic confinement on the islands, leading to a build up of arrivals having to be assessed and cared for by the Canary Islands Regional Government, using hotels left empty due to the lack of tourism. The estimated amount involved in the alleged misuse stands at around €12.5 million between 2020 and 2022 on Gran Canaria alone.

 

Canary Islands Expect Rain and Potential Storm Weather Next Week

The Canary Islands are preparing for a change in the weather next week, as a significant increase in cloud is expected bringing higher probability of rain. The effects of a powerful storm forming in the Atlantic Ocean are likely to extend to the Canary Islands as well as neighbouring Madeira and The Azores.

 

The Canary Guide #WeekendTips 2-4 June 2023

June is here and that means that summer is just around the corner. The Patron Saints’ festivities in honour of San Juan de Bautista and San Antonio de Padua are just getting started on Gran Canaria, and in Pueblo de Mogán the main Romería pilgrimage for San Antonio El Chico is this first Saturday of June, as well as the start of the build up to those in Arucas, Santa Brígida and Moya. This weekend also brings the biggest outlet fair shopping experience back to INFECAR and a collectables fair in Gáldar.
OPERATION KILO is this weekend, at all participating supermarkets, asking you to add a few non-perishable food items to the Food Bank collection boxes to help families in need.

Vox Enters Canarian Politics, Stage Right: Anti-Migrant, Anti-Feminist, Anti-Green, Anti-Autonomy, Anti-LGBT, Anti-Multiculturalism, Pro-Franco politics find a foothold on The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands were unable to avoid the rise of the far right on Sunday, unlike in 2019, writes Natalia G. Vargas in Canarias Ahora. Vox, which previously had no representation on the islands, managed to make its presence felt in several municipalities and councils this May 28. They also secured seats in the Canary Islands’ regional parliament, securing four deputies. “Defending what is ours, our own, and fighting against insecurity” were the slogans that underpinned Vox’s campaign in The Canary Islands, along with “family, employment, and freedom.” This rhetoric, coupled with an electoral program that was repeated across all local elections in Spain, proved sufficient. Dozens of cities and towns on the islands welcomed their first far right candidates of the modern democratic era into Canarian politics, with urban areas serving as their main strongholds.

La Alcaldesa Bueno Secures Incredible Majority in Mogán

Mogán, May 29, 2023 – The often controversial incumbent, O Bueno, La Alcaldesa, has achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory once more in Mogán. The candidate who switched her party’s name, for these elections, to “Juntos por Mogán”, a local ally of the regionalist conservatives “Coalición Canaria” (CC), will once again assume the role of mayor. Her party has clinched a rather noteworthy 17 out of the 21 seats in the Municipal Council of this popular tourism destination located on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria.

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Gran Canaria confirms a monkeypox case and reports five new ones under study

The result of the samples from the second reported case is still pending. This Monday, samples of five more people have been sent to the National Centre for Microbiology, of which three have been classified as probable, because they meet clinical and epidemiological criteria, and two as suspected because they meet only clinical criteria. None appear severely affected
The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, after receiving results on the first case in the Canary Islands reported to the Centre for the Coordination of Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health, last week, has confirmed the presence of monkeypox. The second case reported last Friday, on Tenerife, is still awaiting results of the sample that is being analysed in coordination with the National Centre for Microbiology.
The first two cases notified last week continue to develop favourably, monitored in isolation at home.
The protocol of the Ministry of Health classifies cases between probable and suspected depending on whether the patient presents only compatible symptoms (clinical criteria) or if they also meet epidemiological and laboratory criteria.

Probable cases: clinical and epidemiological criteria
The Canary Islands reported three other probable cases this Monday, all on Gran Canaria, corresponding to three young men whose symptoms are evolving favourably, following the process at home, except for one who has been admitted, based on another pathology.
According to the protocol, one meets clinical and epidemiological criteria established as a probable case, but is awaiting results of the analysis of the laboratory samples.
 
Suspected cases: clinical criteria
The General Directorate of Public Health and the SCS have also reported two possible cases having presented symptoms compatible only with clinical criteria, but not epidemiological or laboratory criteria, as stated in the protocol established by the Spanish Ministry of Health.
All these cases, whether confirmed, suspected or probable, have been reported to the Ministry of Health on Monday, as indicated by the protocols.
 
Monkeypox
Monkeypox infection is a rare disease that causes fever, headache, swollen glands and rashes on the hands and face, similar to that caused by Chickenpox.  It is a well known pathogen, though very unusual, particularly outside of west and central Africa.
The virus has a low capacity for human-to-human transmission which would require close, intimate contact. The incubation period ranges from 5 to 13 days, although it can sometimes be as long as 21 days.
On May 15, the United Kingdom declared a health alert to the World Health Organisation, in accordance with international health regulations, after detecting the first four cases in Europe. This alert activated existing protocols in all health centres, including the Canary Islands Health Service, with the aim of early detection of possible cases.
 

131 cases so far confirmed and registered by WHO
 The cases of monkeypox confirmed in recent days and weeks in non-endemic countries now rise to 131, with another 106 suspected, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported this Tuesday, indicating that the countries which have reported the most infections are Spain (40, at least one in the Canary Islands), Portugal (37) and the United Kingdom (20).
Cases have been confirmed so far in 17 countries, mostly European, although infections have also been identified in Pakistan (2), Israel (1), Canada (5), the US (2) and Australia (2) , the WHO announced during a technical session of the current annual assembly of the organisation.
The disease has been endemic for at least 40 years in West and Central African countries, and although cases had previously been reported in other regions, usually always linked to people who had traveled to the African continent, this is the first time that we have observed any such widespread an outbreak.
With the vast majority of cases having been linked to gay and/or bisexual men, the first time that sexual contact has been seen as a vector, caution is being widely advised, particularly for those who may have had close contact at the recent Pride events organised in Maspalomas.  Community organisations, business owners and the local town hall are working with the regional Ministry of Health and the Spanish authorities to establish if extra safety guidelines need to be published, for the benefit of anyone who may have come into contact with potential infections.  The focus is to break any chain of transmission that may have been present during the mass event attended by upwards of 25,000 people.
There is not thought to be any wider danger to the general population.  Simple caution is advised.
Pride organisers silent as Ministry of Health investigates “probable” link to monkeypox in Maspalomas

 

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