The Regional Government of the Azores defended today that the measure of obliging passengers arriving in the Azores to be in mandatory quarantine, aimed above all to protect people. He recalled that on March 14, with no positive cases in the archipelago, the request to close airports was refused, recalling that TAP no longer required that passengers coming from outside be checked on departure, by means of a passenger survey. Now, there are four alternatives, one of which is to go back.
The mandatory quarantine measure, he recalled, was only contested when the Regional Government of the Azores announced that the mandatory quarantines of passengers arriving in the archipelago would be paid for by themselves.
He said that with regard to the mandatory quarantine measure they were “relatively successful with the best weapon we had”, but that it is no longer possible to use it to combat the spread of the virus. The measure that now ceases and that which will now be in force, no longer has the same effectiveness, he stressed.
In other words, the mandatory quarantines in the Azores now have prophylactic quarantines, subject to the will of those targeted, but never without a screening test and upon positive or negative results.
The four measures
As of this Sunday, the Azores are no longer able to make quarantines that were worth only 135 positive cases and 15 deaths to regret. The Azores have not presented confirmed cases for several days, but the decision of a court today forces the Region to change the mandatory quarantine measure, so that more than 300 people in this situation can leave on their own feet, if they so choose.
Even so, Vasco Cordeiro summarized the alternative measures taken by the Government Council, in an attempt to minimize possible future contagions. The first measure was decreed a public calamity on the islands of São Miguel and Terceira, which determines that all passengers disembarking at Ponta Delgada and Lages airports, coming from areas considered by WHO as active transmission zones or with active transmission chains , are required to prove that they have a negative screening test carried out in the last 72 hours. If the stay is extended for 7 or more days, they will have to do a screening test in the Region to be communicated to them in 24 hours.
Alternatively, they can collect samples upon arrival for a screening test at Sars-Cov2, and must remain in prophylactic isolation, which, if negative, determines their stay in prophylactic isolation for five days until a new test is carried out.
Third alternative, involves having forty volunteers for 14 days in a hotel and taking a test. The last alternative is to return to the origin or another destination outside the Azores.
If the tests are positive, the passenger will be subjected to mandatory quarantine in a hotel designated by the regional authorities, with the costs paid by him, being a measure subject to validation by a judge within 24 hours.
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