"Controls at airports right now don't make sense"

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This Saturday the health control measures adopted by the Government for all passengers from flights originating in China began.

According to the instructions of the Ministry of Health, Foreign Health teams, in coordination with the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda through AENA, will carry out health checks on these passengers at the airports of entry to Spain, which will consist of "a check documentary, visual and temperature and in

".

In the event that a positive is detected, "the communication and coordination protocols established with the health services of the autonomous communities will be activated," says the statement released by Health.

For María del Mar Faraco, president of the Association of Foreign Health Physicians (AMSE), the professionals who must carry out these measures, "these controls at airports right now do not make sense."

"Beyond being a reassuring measure for the population, they do not provide much real utility," stresses the specialist, who recalls that "we are not in the same situation as in 2020."

"Right now, what is happening in China is a problem mainly for China, which has a very large population, no acquired immunity, and only regular vaccination. They have had a

for three years and now they are leaving that the virus spreads without any kind of transition, which is causing them a lot of problems because of the little we can see," says Faraco.

"However, the situation in Europe, and in particular in Spain, is completely different. Vaccination levels are very high and a large part of the population has previously been in contact with the virus."

In addition, "from what we are seeing,

. The same thing that is already circulating enters, so it does not make much sense to do any entry control at airports ".

Faraco recalls that, according to current regulations, the detection of a positive by Foreign Health does not imply any isolation measure for the affected person.

Sources from the Department of Health of the Community of Madrid confirm to this medium that in the event that travelers from China arriving at the Barajas airport are detected positive through an antigen test, "a PCR will also be carried out and that sample Positive PCR will be genetically sequenced."

The objective, they emphasize, is to verify which variants enter, not to isolate the cases: "Isolations from patients for a year have not been mandatory."

"The more that is sequenced globally, the more information we will have about what is circulating and whether there is any variant that should worry us. Genetic sequencing is one of the things that the WHO is promoting the most, but it has to be global, not only on what happens in China", stresses Faraco.

"It is true that a greater circulation of the virus increases the risk of new variants appearing, but surveillance must be global."

"As of today, the most effective thing is to continue promoting vaccination. Temperature controls, tests and vaccination certificates are not going to be useful," he concludes.

In addition to the controls at the airport, according to the new guidelines, all people arriving in Spain from China from next January 3 must have an

or equivalent, contemplated in Regulation (EU) 2021 /953 of the European Parliament and in the Council resolution of June 14, 2021, which can be for vaccination, diagnostic test or recovery.

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