The Ministry of Health has detected a total of 78 cases of Covid-19 due to the Ómicron variant registered in the Canary Islands, after sequencing certain samples that had tested positive for the virus and which were suspected of corresponding to that new strain. Of the total, 65 correspond to sequencing of samples from Tenerife, 12 from Gran Canaria and one from La Palma.
The first case registered by Ómicron in the Canary Islands was confirmed on December 7 in Gran Canaria and corresponds to a middle-aged male. After this first positive in this new variant of the coronavirus, another was confirmed in Tenerife on the 9th, that of a woman whose positive was detected by chance in a screening, since she had not previously traveled to risk countries. The genomic surveillance network for Covid-19 was closely monitoring about 80 samples, of which 76 were confirmed, and continues with all those that present suspicion after performing PCR.
Among these cases under study for being suspected of Ómicron is, due to the high rate of transmission of infections, the outbreak produced at a concert held last week at the Habana nightclub, in the urban area of Adeje, and which already affects 69 people. Public Health maintains the call for people who attended a concert on December 7 at that club to call the line 900 112 061 to carry out PCR and be able to quickly detect possible positive cases.
Percentage of suspicion of Ómicron
The confirmation of the 78 cases with the Ómicron variant confirms the presence in the three islands of the new variant that places the suspicion of Omicron at 21.2 percent of the samples sequenced in Tenerife and at four percent in Gran Canaria in week 49, corresponding from December 6 to 12. However, the predominant variant in all the islands continues to be Delta.
Regarding the Ómicron variant, it is necessary to wait to know its evolution to determine if its incidence in the Archipelago may increase, although given the experience and evolution percentages collected in other territories where it is present and the behavior of other strains of SARS-CoV-2, it is foreseeable that it will gain prominence, although for now no behaviors are extracted that may become dominant.
The Genomic Surveillance Network of the SCS will continue to monitor suspected cases and for this purpose there is a protocolized system for the detection, monitoring and control of the presence of the different variants of SARS-Cov2 in the Islands.
This network, launched through the Directorate of Public Health, establishes a series of controls that allow obtaining a real radiography of the incidence of the different strains of the virus in the Islands.
