If on the continent António Costa pulled the handbrake, in Madeira Miguel Albuquerque reversed. This is because it changed the rules of the game, after having spent a month appealing to students and residents to, before coming to Madeira, take the tests at the testing centers on the continent.
Today he noted that the second PCR test for travelers coming from abroad arriving at Madeira Airport is only taking place – and when it does – within the expected period (5 to 7 days) after arrival, even if they arrive with the test done in the 72 hours prior to the trip. In this case, the second test does not take into account the date of the first test but the date of arrival, a situation that has frustrated the expectations of those who sought to ‘shorten’ the period of prophylactic isolation traveling with the test (negative ) already done.
Without explaining the reason for the retreat and the contradiction between the new decision and the appeal to the test made at the origin, which no longer counts to shorten the period of prophylactic isolation in the Region to which residents, students and emigrants are obliged, he chose to mock. “They have to wait for the second test. Poor kids cannot wait 5 or 7 days. Is someone going to die? If the student goes home and is isolated until the second test results (up to 7 days after arrival)
Without being dramatic, whoever listened to Miguel Albuquerque must be perplexed by the presidential contradiction and eager for explanations. Not least because it is public notice that residents, emigrants and even students who have traveled to Madeira in the past few weeks ended up not being invited to the second mandatory test. Especially because who arrives in Madeira and fulfills the prophylactic isolation until a negative result of the second test has already realized that the logistics of the tests are tremendous and that it is not just “one failure or another” that dictates delays.
It is humanly and technically impossible to respond to what is written in the government resolution. Especially because it remains to be seen what percentage of positive cases were detected in the second test.