The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Ministry of Health held the first meeting this Wednesday afternoon to analyze the five technical documents on the transition to phase 1 of the de-escalation for the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Palma, a phase in which La Gomera, El Hierro and La Graciosa are already in.
Minister Salvador Illa was accompanied by the director of the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, Fernando Simón, and his entire technical team. From the Canary Islands, the Minister of Health, Julio Pérez; the director of the Canary Islands Health Service, Antonio Olivera; the general director of Public Health, José Juan Alemán; the general director of Assistance Programs, Octavio Jiménez, and the head of the Epidemiology Service, Domingo Núñez.
This first meeting will continue with others at a technical level that will take place in the following hours before the Ministry of Health finally authorizes, as is foreseeable, the passage of all the islands to phase 1 in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, attending to the criterion of co-governance established in this regard. Minister Salvador Illa congratulated the Canary Islands both for their good data and for the technical and health work to contain the pandemic.
In this meeting it was pointed out that the two keys to successfully pass this stage were social behavior and early detection measures for the disease. It was insisted that citizens must attend to and comply with the established health measures such as physical distancing, compliance with the hours established for outdoor activities or hygienic measures.
With respect to early detection, emphasis was placed on the role of Primary Care and the teams of trackers that the Canary Islands has already trained since the first phase of the pandemic.
Criteria
In general, the Canary Islands complies with the criteria established by the State to move to phase 1, which marks a ratio of acute and ICU beds per 10,000 inhabitants and the provision of infrastructures with the option of sanitizing in five days in case a peak of the disease occurs.
In addition, the Ministry has been shown that the Autonomous Community is in very favorable conditions of contagion and control of the same with an average of tests exceeding 2,200 per day and with a contagion rate that in recent weeks has not exceeded ten a day, with some days of zero cases in 24 hours. The new phase also includes the notification of suspected cases and the detection of early signs of the disease.
The passage to phase 1 prevents mobility between islands because the territory of reference for each phase remains the island. In order to establish control of the situation, the Autonomous Community has established a risk assessment method taking into account vulnerability.
In coordination with the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (ISTAC), the Canary Islands has made georeferenced data of hotels, apartments and other infrastructures available to the Ministry of Health in order to analyze these risks and be able to act on them if necessary.
The Canarian proposal establishes some measures referring to the use of public transport, maritime transport, specific protection measures for all vulnerable groups in the development of relief measures. In addition, measures are established for the opening of commercial premises and establishments that are not a center or commercial park with limited capacity and hygienic measures. Hotel and restaurant establishments will have their capacity limited as well as leisure centers.
Health activity
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The Canary Islands will gradually return to its usual health activity with a series of control measures such as maintaining a high profile in terms of information on self-protection measures, especially in maintaining personal and social distance.
To improve assistance, the appointment schedules will be adapted in all professional agendas: medical consultations, nursing consultations, analyses, complementary tests, etc., in such a way that agglomerations and stays of patients in waiting rooms are minimized.