Lanzarote and La Graciosa rise to Covid alert level 3, as announced by the Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo, at the press conference after the extraordinary meeting of the Government Council. Other islands that change level are Tenerife, which rises to four, and La Palma to level three. The rest of the islands remain at the level they were.
Trujillo explained that the islands that are rising in level are those that have had a more worrying evolution in recent days, and that the Archipelago as a whole is in a "very high risk situation." The changes in level will come into effect at 00.00 on Monday, January 10.
In the Autonomous Community as a whole, between December 27 and January 2, 24,896 new cases of Covid were reported, which represents an increase of 46.5% in the daily average of new cases in relation to the previous week.
The 7-day IA rate in the Canary Islands increased by 46.5%, so that, from a weekly average of 781 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, it rose to 1,144 cases this week. The largest increase is observed in Lanzarote this week, but all the islands are at a very high risk level in this indicator, as is the case with the 7-day IA in people over 65 years of age and the 14-day IA, which are at very high risk in all the islands. This increase in IA responds to the greater mobility behavior of the population, as is the case throughout Europe, and in a pandemic context marked by the predominance of the Omicron variant, which, as is known, is up to 80 percent more transmissible.
As has been observed, Tenerife has evolved steadily in an upward trend of accumulated incidence indicators at a very high risk level and the healthcare indicators have been progressively reaching a percentage of occupancy of critical care beds, already this week, at a very high risk level, which determine the passage to level 4 of health alert.
Lanzarote and La Palma move to level 3 because they are currently in a high transmission risk situation, due to a very abrupt worsening of the epidemiological situation with an exponential increase in the Accumulated Incidence at 7 days in both islands in the last week.
The island of Gran Canaria remains at alert level 3, although the evolution of healthcare indicators will continue to be closely monitored, in case very high impact levels are reached at the hospital level in the coming days.
The indicators for risk assessment and Covid transmission alert levels were modified at the end of November by the Ministry of Health given the current context of high vaccination coverage, so an upward revision of the thresholds of disease incidence indicators was made, giving greater weight to healthcare indicators.
Healthcare indicators
Regarding healthcare indicators, the daily average of occupied conventional hospital beds increases by 40.5% compared to the previous week and remains at medium risk, with an average of 399 beds occupied. The percentage of occupancy in Tenerife is at a high risk level; in Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura at medium risk; in Lanzarote, La Palma and La Gomera at low risk; and in El Hierro under controlled circulation.
ICU occupancy in Tenerife, at very high risk
The number of occupied ICU beds maintains the upward trend that began six weeks ago, increasing by 26.9 percent compared to the previous evaluation. In the islands as a whole, the average has gone from 67 occupied ICU beds two weeks ago to 85 in the last week, with an occupancy percentage of 16.5% and rising to high risk. Tenerife rises to a very high risk level, Gran Canaria remains at a high risk level, while the rest of the islands are under controlled circulation.
Median age
The median age of all people hospitalized for Covid in the last 30 days is 67 years and 63 and a half years in those admitted to the ICU, all being over 30 years of age. 52.5% of people admitted to critical care units diagnosed during the last 30 days had not received the full vaccination schedule. This is a figure to be assessed in a context in which more than 80.6 percent of the population of the Canary Islands is vaccinated; therefore this is 52.5% of the 19.4 percent of the unvaccinated population.
80.1% of people admitted for Covid and diagnosed in the last 30 days had no previous pathologies. This percentage increases in unvaccinated patients, in whom 87.8% had no other known pathologies.
The Ministry of Health insists on the need to maintain prevention measures to avoid risks of Covid transmission: use of a mask covering the nose and mouth perfectly; respect for social distance; maintain cross ventilation and hand hygiene.
