Boy not allowed to return home from Tenerife after positive Covid test – tries to escape
Coronavirus: Quarantined Tenerife tourist says she is ‘horrified’
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An underage Briton attempted to leave Tenerife and fly to the UK despite testing positive for Covid. The unnamed minor was intercepted by police at the island airport when he tried to return home with his dad and grandfather.
In a dramatic dash for freedom, the youngster fled a health centre where he had been given his fit-to-fly Covid test result by climbing through a window.
He was stopped at the airport.
The minor was intercepted as he tried to board a plane to Britain.
He had brought his return home forward by buying a new plane ticket.
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The airport stop occurred last week but has only just been made public.
A spokesperson for Spain’s National Police in the island capital Santa Cruz confirmed: “National Police officers detected a British minor who was with his dad and grandfather as he tried to return to the UK after testing positive in a Covid antigen test.
“He was on holiday in the south of Tenerife and went to a health centre to do the test. When he was told he had tested positive, he fled the centre by jumping through a window preventing health officials from adopting the standard protocol in these cases.
“The local airport authority was informed and surveillance established in an operation which involved the closure and monitoring of the airport entrances.”
The boy remained in quarantine and was not allowed to return home.
After being picked up at the airport, he was taken on his mandatory 10 days of quarantine at a hotel in Tenerife.
It is not yet clear whether the boy’s relatives have remained in Tenerife or have flown home.
The attempted escape could have serious consequences for the youngster.
Tenerife’s local health chiefs and a judge have been informed.
The spokesperson said: “Once the youngster had been picked up outside the airport, he was made to quarantine and told he would have to stay in a room at the hotel he had been checked into for 10 days.
“Health and court officials and prosecutors have been informed of the situation.”
It was clear the tourist deliberately tried to escape quarantine.
Police said they are certain the youngster made a deliberate attempt to avoid self-quarantine after he discovered he had tested positive for Covid in the antigen test.
It was not immediately clear this morning if the Briton would face a fine over his actions.
For now, he is quarantining in Tenerife.
Health chiefs in Tenerife revealed yesterday five people with Covid had died in the previous 24 hours.
The Canary Islands registered 141 new Covid cases yesterday. Tenerife was the most affected with 84, followed by Gran Canaria with 38 and Lanzarote with 11.
As of yesterday, the number of people with Covid in the archipelago stood at 13,406.
Additional reporting by Natalia Penza
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