Heads up - Canary Islands Confusion on Covid Testing Requirements

patrickyuis

Just to clarify for those planning to travel to the Canaries anytime soon, there is still a requirement to have a certificated PCR test done (72 hrs before travel) in order to land into the canaries, we are due to travel out on the 12th Dec and have been keeping an eye on this whole situation whether the Spanish Gov will let the canaries accept Antigen tests instead of PCR tests purely because they are alot cheaper and more people will consider travelling in that case. We ourselves are hoping this will get passed soon but as of right now you still need to have a PCR test done.

95% of news outlets have prematurely stated that the canaries 'accept' antigen tests (google "canary antigen") but they are wrong because this got shot down by the spanish government in Madrid on Monday and i believe the canary government are trying to override it and/or try to somehow enforce their own law in order for them to be able to accept antigen tests. This is apparently happening on thursday so i'd say to keep your eyes out on the news from reputable outlets.

So as of now be safe and do the PCR test because you will most likely get refused at your depature or even as you land if you dont have the correct test done.

eskbanker

patrickyuis said:

95% of news outlets have prematurely stated that the canaries 'accept' antigen tests (google "canary antigen") but they are wrong because this got shot down by the spanish government in Madrid on Monday and i believe the canary government are trying to override it and/or try to somehow enforce their own law in order for them to be able to accept antigen tests. This is apparently happening on thursday so i'd say to keep your eyes out on the news from reputable outlets.

Tried googling those terms just out of interest and it's a wild exaggeration to claim that 95% of news outlets stated that!  A hotch-potch of various amateurish low-profile blogs and so on may have erroneously asserted that, but anyone choosing to base significant decisions on such ropey sources of (dis)information frankly deserves what they get, if they wilfully choose to ignore all the official authoritative and definitive sites....

patrickyuis

eskbanker said:

patrickyuis said:

95% of news outlets have prematurely stated that the canaries 'accept' antigen tests (google "canary antigen") but they are wrong because this got shot down by the spanish government in Madrid on Monday and i believe the canary government are trying to override it and/or try to somehow enforce their own law in order for them to be able to accept antigen tests. This is apparently happening on thursday so i'd say to keep your eyes out on the news from reputable outlets.

Tried googling those terms just out of interest and it's a wild exaggeration to claim that 95% of news outlets stated that!  A hotch-potch of various amateurish low-profile blogs and so on may have erroneously asserted that, but anyone choosing to base significant decisions on such ropey sources of (dis)information frankly deserves what they get, if they wilfully choose to ignore all the official authoritative and definitive sites....

Wild exaggeration? i counted 7/9 from the first page of google search results for "Canary Antigen" all of which state that Canary Islands 'Accept' antigen tests, the first page of google is where most people would go to find this type of information, i'm pretty sure that isnt a wild exaggeration since its the biggest search engine globally and that a high majority of people dont even go past the first page of search resutls (not going to quote a percentage before you go crazy dismissing it).

Percentage-wise 7/9 would be 77% which im sorry if that is 'WILDLY' out of your criteria (shoot me), but what i said is factual you even saw yourself. The fact that its a "hotch-potch of various amateur low-profile blogs" but yet still happen to show up as the first round of results on google is nobody fault other than the google algorithm, thats just what is shows (accept it or not) and yes it is misleading information.

Why else do you think i took my own time to make people aware of this? i couldnt care less if you made the most of that information or not, if it helped just 1 person now become 'informed' of the situation, it was worth me spending 5 mins to type that out rather than them coming across a worse-off situation.

Mate, all i did was try put out some useful info for people who might not be aware of it, no idea why you felt the need to spew out some passive-agressive rhetoric?

i think you just proved that you are probably the type to not flash an oncoming fellow driver to give them a heads-up that there is a speed van up ahead, because you know........."they frankly deserve what they get".

eskbanker

I'm not planning to go through all that line by line but would just observe that there's a massive difference between results of a Google search and actual news outlets in the generally accepted sense, and that even for the former, many accurately reflect the fact that the Canaries want to move to antigen testing and are discussing, negotiating and planning this, rather than misrepresenting the situation as already being in place as some seemed to.

For anyone in the UK having difficulty working out where to find authoritative information, the gov.uk site is the obvious place to start, which in turn links to both the official Spain Travel Health site and the Canary Islands tourist board one:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain/entry-requirements
https://www.spth.gob.es/
https://www.hellocanaryislands.com/coronavirus/

patrickyuis

eskbanker said:

I'm not planning to go through all that line by line but would just observe that there's a massive difference between results of a Google search and actual news outlets in the generally accepted sense, and that even for the former, many accurately reflect the fact that the Canaries want to move to antigen testing and are discussing, negotiating and planning this, rather than misrepresenting the situation as already being in place as some seemed to.

For anyone in the UK having difficulty working out where to find authoritative information, the gov.uk site is the obvious place to start, which in turn links to both the official Spain Travel Health site and the Canary Islands tourist board one:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain/entry-requirements
https://www.spth.gob.es/
https://www.hellocanaryislands.com/coronavirus/

Ok so now it looks like it might end up being an issue whether it is or isnt going to be 'official' or not, because it seems like the canarian government might end up accepting the test's whether madrid likes it or not. 

https://www.canarianweekly.com/posts/canaries-will-validate-antigen tests-today#ath

Canarian Weekly which is a reputable publication and isnt just a blog (has offices and other canarian-based entities) states that:

" the Canary Islands will validate antigen tests for all travellers in today's Governing Council, with or without the backing of the Central Government, after they didn’t take a single step yesterday to support this initiative, even though it has been constantly requested by administrations, tourist associations, and even by the regional government itself."

So based on that, if they do decide to accept antigen tests i highly doubt it is going to show up on the official spanish government websites since they are against it. But at the end of the day if the Canarian government say OK (by the end of today) then im guessing that i would rather take their word since they are the goveners of the island. Tis seem like a very messy situation indeed. 

superbigal

patrickyuis said:

eskbanker said:

I'm not planning to go through all that line by line but would just observe that there's a massive difference between results of a Google search and actual news outlets in the generally accepted sense, and that even for the former, many accurately reflect the fact that the Canaries want to move to antigen testing and are discussing, negotiating and planning this, rather than misrepresenting the situation as already being in place as some seemed to.

For anyone in the UK having difficulty working out where to find authoritative information, the gov.uk site is the obvious place to start, which in turn links to both the official Spain Travel Health site and the Canary Islands tourist board one:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain/entry-requirements
https://www.spth.gob.es/
https://www.hellocanaryislands.com/coronavirus/

Ok so now it looks like it might end up being an issue whether it is or isnt going to be 'official' or not, because it seems like the canarian government might end up accepting the test's whether madrid likes it or not. 

https://www.canarianweekly.com/posts/canaries-will-validate-antigen tests-today#ath

Canarian Weekly which is a reputable publication and isnt just a blog (has offices and other canarian-based entities) states that:

" the Canary Islands will validate antigen tests for all travellers in today's Governing Council, with or without the backing of the Central Government, after they didn’t take a single step yesterday to support this initiative, even though it has been constantly requested by administrations, tourist associations, and even by the regional government itself."

So based on that, if they do decide to accept antigen tests i highly doubt it is going to show up on the official spanish government websites since they are against it. But at the end of the day if the Canarian government say OK (by the end of today) then im guessing that i would rather take their word since they are the goveners of the island. Tis seem like a very messy situation indeed. 

They do not govern the island. They govern a group of islands.  Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria & fuerteventura being the 4 most commonly flown too.

eskbanker

patrickyuis said:
if they do decide to accept antigen tests i highly doubt it is going to show up on the official spanish government websites since they are against it. But at the end of the day if the Canarian government say OK (by the end of today) then im guessing that i would rather take their word since they are the goveners of the island. Tis seem like a very messy situation indeed. 

It's obviously possible that the island governing council could decide to defy Madrid and yes, in that scenario the main Spanish site could choose not to reflect that, but you'd expect the more local Canary tourist one to be updated accordingly.  The point remains though, that anyone considering travelling from the UK would be well advised to source information that's as definitive and up to date as possible, unless they're happy to accept the risks of relying on speculative or inaccurate articles....