The Directorate of the Canary Islands Health Service has formally requested the State to "immediately" incorporate 26 military trackers into the SCS structure to strengthen the Canary Islands tracking system in the face of the increase in Covid-19 cases, especially on the islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura.
Two of the military trackers will join the tracking team of the General Directorate of Public Health in charge of the most complex cases and 24 will join the tracking room located in the Public Library of the State in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria under the coordination of the Primary Care Management of the island.
However, the Ministry stresses that "despite their physical location, these trackers will work for all cases that require it, especially for those of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura or La Palma, which is where the largest increases in cases are currently occurring."
In addition, they argue that "the Canary Islands has a consolidated tracking network that has achieved traceability indicators above 70 percent", although it is now below that figure, specifically at 64.1%. "Despite having a staff sized to cover new demands, the SCS has requested this external support in the face of the possibility of an explosive increase in incidence, as has occurred in other autonomous communities such as Cantabria or Castilla y León," they argue.
In addition, they emphasize that "the profile of the current case differs substantially from the traditional case, given that the largest number of infections occurs in the young population and this fact requires a new adaptation in the approach to interviews with positives and close contacts, which requires specific training to develop new skills and abilities in the interview." According to the Ministry, "the quantitative oversizing of trackers allows the team to have more time to carry out training actions to address these new cases."
