The strong gusts of wind that lashed the island in recent days forced the closure of the Auto-Covid installed in the Arrecife Fairgrounds over the weekend for several hours. This has been revealed by the director of the Lanzarote Health Area, Noelia Umpiérrez, who has attributed the spike in cases this Wednesday to this.
And, according to Umpiérrez explained on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, the tests that could not be performed on Saturday and Sunday "were moved to the first days of this week". "They have been accumulating a little, and those 45 cases are as if we divided them over three days," she said.
However, it must be taken into account that, in the three previous days, a total of 32 new infections were reported, which, added to the 45 this Wednesday, would make an average of 19 daily cases. In fact, the island is currently "at risk" high due to the accumulated incidence both at seven and 14 days.
"We must remain vigilant, because it is true that now, with vaccination, people may have the feeling that they can relax, but that is not the case. Infections continue and we must continue to maintain all measures," said the director of the Lanzarote Health Area.
In this regard, she pointed out that although she believes that "the good data from the hospital and perhaps the percentage of vaccinated people" that already exist on the island allow Lanzarote to remain at the level of health alert, the truth is that "the data is practically level 3."
"The most urgent tests were done"
Regarding the closure of the Auto-Covid over the weekend, Noelia Umpiérrez detailed that both Saturday and Sunday it was operating "until noon", when the decision to close was made. And, although in previous days the firefighters of the Security and Emergency Consortium helped to fix the tents where the tests are carried out and were "watching that nothing happened", the health personnel had been experiencing difficulties in putting on the PPEs. "The nurses' screens were lifted and they had to tie up the PPEs," she said, pointing out that they were becoming "more uncomfortable."
Therefore, after the "most urgent" tests were carried out over the weekend, it was decided to close and move the rest of the tests. "The ones that really mattered and those of close contacts, who were already isolated, could be perfectly moved to Monday and Tuesday," she said.
This, she pointed out, meant that in the first two days of this week more than 450 daily PCRs were carried out, to which she pointed out that antigen tests that were carried out should also be added. However, only 14 cases were reported on Tuesday, a third of those reported this Wednesday. In addition, about 300 PCRs were carried out in the Auto-Covid over the weekend, adding those carried out on Saturday and those carried out on Sunday. A figure that, according to the data that the Ministry of Health has been providing, does not differ much from those that have been done other weekends.
Regarding the 45 infections registered this Wednesday, as La Voz already reported, eight corresponded to cases detected in the ramifications of the gym outbreak, but most were distributed among other detected outbreaks. In fact, the Ministry notified six new outbreaks on the island this Wednesday.
Gym outbreak
Regarding the outbreak of the Arrecife gym, she pointed out that "it is normal" that it continues to add cases, although, after the eight new positives that were reported this Wednesday, it remains with 167 affected. "With the high number that this outbreak of cases had at the beginning, it is normal that we continue, that in the tracking they continue to appear," said the director of the Lanzarote Health Area. "I don't remember, in the data that the Ministry of Health has been publishing, such a high outbreak," she added
In addition, she pointed out that it must be taken into account that "now we are not only talking directly about the gym, but about tertiary and quaternary branches." "From the close contact of the first positive, another positive has come out, and that positive has other close contacts, and it is still being studied," she concluded.
