As reported by the minister at a press conference, the Foreign Health teams will be reinforced with a first contingent of 100 people, from auxiliary companies and others that provide services in ports and airports, thanks to an agreement with the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.
Salvador Illa recalled that starting on Sunday, people arriving in Spain will undergo three primary controls. On the one hand, they must fill out the location form, the one known as the Passenger Location Card (PLC), which is already used at the moment. This includes the person's location data as well as information on whether the Covid-19 has passed and under what circumstances. Temperature control will also continue. Finally, a visual check will be carried out.
If one of these three controls is not passed, a doctor will examine the person and will refer him to the welfare services of the autonomous community of destination, the minister explained.
To facilitate a smooth transit through airports, the temperature control that is already carried out from May 15 to passengers on flights that come from abroad, will be carried out with thermal imaging cameras. In addition, in the coming weeks, the location document, which until now is completed on the plane and delivered by hand once the traveler reaches the destination, will be digitized.
The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, and the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, José Luis Ábalos, will visit the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport tomorrow.
European purchase of vaccines
Furthermore, the minister has also announced that Spain has joined the purchase of vaccines to be made by the European Commission, through the so-called Covid-19 Vaccine Inclusive Alliance. Spain will form part of its steering committee and the negotiating team. "We congratulate ourselves for being part and because the purchase is made with a European approach to guarantee equitable access," he stressed.
Finally, Illa has announced that the autonomous communities have completed the process of adjusting the data of deceased people and has highlighted the "transparency exercise" of the Ministry of Health, "from the first moment."
The data of people killed by Covid-19 are already collected in the individualized data collection system, the Sivies, so that the Ministry of Health, through the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES) has the capacity to display this data. As progress has been made, the autonomous communities have registered a total of 28,313 deaths to date. The update is published every afternoon, starting at 5:00 p.m., in the website of the Ministry of Health.
Fast and effective surveillance
Illa has stressed that Spain has the global scope of the epidemic thanks to the seroprevalence study, which this week ends its third wave and so far shows that Covid-19 has affected 5% of the population. The study, "with much international impact," will be published shortly in the scientific journal The Lancet.
Finally, the minister has valued the operation of the surveillance system, which has enabled 34 coronavirus outbreaks to be detected since May 11 and to act "promptly and effectively to control them." As explained, there are currently nine active outbreaks, with 92 people affected. "They are all under control," he insisted.
Among the detection work, 3,061,738 PCR tests have been carried out until June 11, "with a daily average of 40,000," the minister stressed.