This Thursday, the Canary Islands registered its worst figure in the number of daily infections since the pandemic began, with 378 positive cases of Covid-19, and the Ministry of Health has attributed it, among other things, to the variants that are becoming increasingly present in the archipelago, and that have “a greater capacity for transmission.”
Minister Blas Trujillo has referred to the British strain, which continues to be the predominant one in the Canary Islands, but also to the Delta strain or Indian strain, which is the one that currently worries the most worldwide. Trujillo has confirmed that this variant is already advancing through the archipelago, with the detected cases having tripled in two weeks.
During the appearance after the Governing Council, the Minister announced a report prepared by the regional Executive, with data from the samples sequenced in Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
In the case of Tenerife, 10.1% of the samples analyzed this week correspond to that Indian strain, when two weeks ago the figure was 3.1%. As for Gran Canaria, it has already reached 6.33%, when 14 days ago it was at 2.2%.
In both islands, the majority variant is the British one (alpha), although with a significant difference in the percentage. In Tenerife it represents 85.8% of the sequenced samples, and in Gran Canaria 55.8%. Regarding another of the variants that are analyzed, the South African one, it is having an increasingly lower incidence. In Tenerife, it represents 1.8% of the sequenced samples this week and in Gran Canaria 10%, with a drop of more than 20 points compared to two weeks ago.
“We are already having the most active strains at levels that indicate that we have to increase prudence and commitment, both individually and collectively, in complying with all preventive measures”, warned the Minister of Health.
In addition, he reiterated that the highest number of infections continues to occur among the younger population, which is not yet vaccinated and has “greater mobility and social interaction.” However, he also warned that it is in turn being “transmitted to older people”, although “fortunately not with the same result” as at the beginning of the pandemic, before vaccination began. However, he insisted on the need to take extreme measures in the face of a situation that is "hatching" not only in the Canary Islands, but also in other areas of Spain and in other countries.
