The Covid-19 Screening and Surveillance Unit, which is being set up at Madeira International Airport – Cristiano Ronaldo, is made up of 25 offices where PCR tests will be carried out on passengers without prior testing who will disembark from next Wednesday. outside the Archipelago, should be able to carry out 100 tests in about 25 minutes.
The estimate is the result of the test carried out yesterday, which, according to the President of the Regional Government, “40 passengers took 10 minutes”, that is, just over 5 minutes per test to be multiplied by the 25 offices installed.
Although the assembly of equipment is still in progress, Miguel Albuquerque left the guarantee that the airports of Madeira and Porto Santo “will have all the conditions” and, starting next week, “start a security operation when disembarking in RAM”.
He recalled that “all passengers who disembark are subject to temperature control” through cameras in the Arrivals area that “will automatically test the temperature of the passengers” and made it known that “whoever has a temperature above 38 degrees [centigrade] is immediately directed to an infirmary zone ”.
Accompanied by the secretaries responsible for Health and Tourism, the President of the Government announced that whoever disembarks with a negative PCR test less than 72 hours after completing the epidemic survey will follow the green corridor. “Passengers who do not have a test are directed to the blue line (corridor)” where they will be permanently “accompanied by specialized personnel” while being directed to the testing area made up of 25 offices.
Albuquerque reiterated that these passengers are obliged to “confinement in the hotel and in the residence” while “waiting for the results, at most, up to 12 hours”. He was convinced that in Madeira the deadline stipulated for determining the test result will be met, even estimating that “most results will appear in less than 12 hours”, convinced of the installed “responsiveness”.
Albuquerque also made it clear that all travelers from Lisbon and Porto, whether residents or foreigners, will also be able to benefit from the PCR test “funded” by the Regional Government. In addition to the agreement already signed with the laboratory where the test will be carried out in Lisbon, he announced that “the protocol in Porto (will be) signed next week”, in order to guarantee equal conditions on the two domestic routes.
He reaffirmed that this option is available to “all people” who travel to Madeira and Porto santo. “It is a facility that we give to avoid people having to do the test here and wait for the result”, he justified.