Although the Health Department no longer performs Covid tests on the general population, two pieces of data confirm the significant increase in cases that is being experienced on the island. On the one hand, the incidence in people over 60 years of age has skyrocketed - the only age group that is now being monitored - and is at the second worst figure since the start of the pandemic. On the other hand, hospital pressure is increasing, forcing services to be reorganized.
"We recently had five patients admitted and now we have 16. We are not alarmed, but we are monitoring the situation, in case it is necessary to take measures," explains the manager of the Health Services, José Luis Aparicio.
For the moment, they have already had to enable a second area of the Covid ward, which had stopped being used in recent months. Each one has capacity for 15 people, and that number has already been exceeded.
This has directly affected the scheduling of operations, because that second area was used for surgery patients, and now it has had to be emptied to move Covid patients there. “If you have the surgery ward occupied, you obviously cannot operate on those patients who require days or weeks of hospitalization”, explains Aparicio. For this reason, they are currently “prioritizing” interventions that do not require hospital admission.
In any case, the manager of Health Services emphasizes that hospital pressure is still “reasonable” on the island, and also that there are currently no patients in the ICU. “With this trend, a year ago we would be much worse off in the hospital”, points out José Luis Aparicio, underlining the change that vaccines have brought about.
In fact, the worst period of admissions and deaths on the island was recorded after Christmas 2020, when the incidence was not even a tenth of what the island has had this year, already after vaccination.
“People are catching Covid, more and more, but most spend it at home without needing hospitalization”, insists Aparicio.
As for the 16 people admitted, only six are actually there because of that disease. The other 10 are admitted for other pathologies, but have tested positive for Covid, so they have been referred to that specific ward to avoid contagion.
In this regard, the manager of Health Services warns that the forecast is that the situation will “worsen”, until this new wave “stabilizes”, although he is confident that this progressive increase in infections will not generate great pressure on the hospital.
More than 24 daily cases in the elderly alone
In the last 7 days, Lanzarote has added 171 positives in people over 60 years of age, which is an average of more than 24 daily cases in this age group alone. It should be remembered that since the beginning of the pandemic and until last Christmas, the worst peaks on the island had been around 120 cases in one day - including all age groups - but the usual thing was not to exceed 10 or 20 daily cases.
Now, only with those over 60, that figure is being exceeded, and Aparicio recognizes that it is “practically impossible” to know the total number of cases there are. “Since the tests were released in pharmacies, it is an indicator with a very large error that has ceased to be useful. That is why we have a small sample, of those over 60, to keep it controlled only in that range”, he explains, recalling that the current protocol establishes that tests are only carried out on that age group or on people at risk due to other factors.
In any case, the curve of this indicator gives a clear dimension of the situation that is being experienced not only in Lanzarote, but throughout the Canary Islands.
Until last Christmas, the accumulated incidence at 7 days in people over 60 years of age had never exceeded 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the archipelago, and is currently at 630, according to the latest report from the Government of the Canary Islands. The highest peak had been recorded last January, reaching almost 1,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 7 days. And although in February it began to decline, since March that curve - with small variations - has become ascending again, especially in recent weeks.
In Lanzarote, the accumulated incidence at 7 days in people over 60 years of age is 601 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while at 14 days it stands at 1,038. And this, again, reflects an upward trend in the last week.
Regarding healthcare personnel, Aparicio affirms that there are currently three workers with coronavirus in a service at the Molina Orosa Hospital, although he emphasizes that they do not consider it an outbreak - which would imply that the cases are linked to each other - due to the current situation that is being experienced on the island. "There are so many people infected at this time that it is not difficult for three infected people to coincide in any place with several people", he affirms.
