The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands has updated this Friday the levels of health alert, raising Gran Canaria and Tenerife to level 2 and keeping Lanzarote at level 1. The rest of the islands will continue the same, so Fuerteventura remains at level 3 and La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro, together with Lanzarote and La Graciosa, at level 1.
The change of level in Tenerife and Gran Canaria will not be effective immediately but after the weekend, from 00.00 hours on Monday the 13th, "being subject to periodic re-evaluations, even before the indicated date if necessary", as emphasized by the Ministry.
In the Canary Islands as a whole, between December 2 and 8, 2,516 new cases of Covid-19 were reported, which represents an increase of around 17.5% in the daily average of new cases in relation to the previous week, in which 2,141 were registered.
The IA rate at 7 days in the Canary Islands as a whole and by islands increased by around 17.5%, so that, from a weekly average of 98.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, it went to 115.6 cases this week. The largest increase is observed on the island of Fuerteventura, which is at a very high risk level. The rest of the islands are all at medium risk except for El Hierro, which remains at low risk. As for the incidence in people over 65 years of age, both Lanzarote and Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Fuerteventura are at high risk.
"The evolution of the accumulated incidences responds to the general relaxation in the maintenance of non-pharmacological prevention measures (mask, physical distance, ventilation, hand washing) despite the fact that they have more than proven their effectiveness", argue from the Ministry of Health, which has insisted on "the need to maintain prevention measures to avoid risks of transmission of Covid-19".
Hospital bed occupancy rises 46%
Regarding healthcare indicators, the daily average of conventional hospital beds occupied during the last week by Covid-19 patients increased by 46.2% compared to the previous week, with 253 beds occupied on average.
Regarding ICU beds, the upward trend that began four weeks ago continues, increasing by 40% compared to the previous evaluation. In the Autonomous Community as a whole, the average has gone from 35 ICU beds occupied two weeks ago to 49 in the last week, all of them in Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura. This last island is at high risk in this indicator and the other two at medium risk.
The median age of all people hospitalized for Covid-19 in the last 14 days is 68 years and the Ministry highlights that 65.2% of people admitted to critical units diagnosed during the last 2 weeks had not received the full vaccination schedule.
"The cumulative incidence rate of Covid-19 cases in the last week is 2.42 times higher in the population that has not received any dose of vaccine compared to the rate in the population that has received the full schedule", adds Health.
