The cost of the tests, to be borne by the region, will be around €30 for each analysis.
“We are working to achieve another very important thing, which is to enable passengers coming to Madeira to carry out the test, at the expense of the government, in Lisbon, which will facilitate and prevent” the spread of Covid-19 in the region, said Miguel Albuquerque.
The chief of the Madeiran executive stressed that as of 1 July, passengers disembarking at Madeira and Porto Santo airports must carry a negative test result carried out in the previous 72 hours.
If they do not have the document, the test will be carried out in the regional airport infrastructures, “at the expense of the Regional Government”, and the passenger must wait up to a maximum of 12 hours for the result. The reinforcement of health teams related to this functionality is being prepared, said the politician.
Miguel Albuquerque said that the executive already bears the costs of this test in relation to various groups, “such as students and people who have no financial means”.
“It would be good to include everyone who wants to travel to Madeira, because that would make everything easier,” he said.
The assumption of expenditure in relation to tourists, “in these initial months” is justified by the importance of the sector in the archipelago: in the opinion of Miguel Albuquerque, it is preferable “to assume these costs and have the beginning of the development and reopening of tourism than to be spending this money on unemployment benefits”.
The idea is being worked on by the Secretary of Health for Madeira and will allow visitors to be able to carry out the tests “in centres or in clinics in Lisbon”, at the same price.
“This is an example for Europe and civil aviation on how to develop connections and, again, mobility”, he highlighted.
Madeira, he underlined, “cannot take unnecessary risks”, especially when “one of the main assets it will offer is to be a region that has almost zero active cases of Covid-19”.