BRITS arriving for holidays in the Canary Islands will be tested for coronavirus when they arrive at their hotel receptions.

The regional government and hoteliers are finalising the measure following a row over testing at airports.

The Spanish government and the airport authority AENA has indicated that it isn't feasible to test millions of arrivals at the airports, due to lack of space and congestion and the EU isn't in favour of the idea.

Hotels will also be set up on the different islands, including Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, to accommodate any holidaymaker who tests positive and must go into quarantine whilst still on holiday.

The Canaries was moved from the quarantine list last night so Brits returning from there will no longer need to self isolate from 4am on Sunday.

The Canary Islands wants the destination to be regarded as safe and will therefore offer the tests for everyone's reassurance.

Hoteliers and the Canary government say the most effective and practical solution is to carry out diagnostic tests at hotel receptions, on a mandatory basis.

The tests, facilities and staff will be provided by the autonomous community and by the hoteliers themselves.

Coronavirus cases in the Canaries are now below 50 cases of infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days, which countries such as Germany require and its advice about travelling is likely to change in the next few days.

The islands are also preparing to receive Nordic tourism from this Saturday after the announcement by the main Scandinavian tour operator that it will once again operate with the Canary Islands with four weekly flights, one to Tenerife and three to Gran Canaria.

TUI, the main German tour operator, has also resumed its flights with the islands.

Usually, 15 million people a year choose the Canaries for their holidays but because of the coronavirus crisis, this figure for 2020 is expected to plummet to five million.

However, the Canary government believes it can hit the ten million mark in 2021 and recover 70 per cent of air connectivity. New markets will be sourced, particularly Canada and America.

Canary health chiefs yesterday announced 126 new cases of COVID-19. The total number of accumulated cases in the Canary Islands is 16,070 with 6,341 active.

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There were four new deaths from COVID-19, three men and one woman, with ages between 53 and 80 years and previous pathologies.

Two were in Tenerife, one in Gran Canaria and another in Fuerteventura.

To date, a total of 446,866 PCR tests have been carried out in the islands.

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