Covid rebounds in the Canaries as a second island rises to health alert level 2

The Ministry of Health of the Canary Islands has continued to review epidemiological reports every Thursday from the General Directorate of Public Health, and hasn’t had to update the health alert levels until Gran Canaria was raised to level 2 on December 29^th, however, La Gomera is now the second island to go to level 2 (medium risk) given the evolution of its COVID-19 assistance indicators, a clear indicator that there has been a rebound over Christmas.

Gran Canaria’s situation will be reviewed next week, as that is the first opportunity for the level to be reduced depending on indicators, La Gomera will be in level 2 for at least two weeks, and currently, the rest of the islands stay at level 1 (low risk), where they have been since August 18^th, although some were said to be ‘borderline’.

In the case of La Gomera, there has been an increase in the occupancy of conventional hospital beds and ICU beds specifically due to Covid, which are now at medium and high risk. The rest of the indicators, like the other islands, remain at low risk or controlled circulation.

Cumulative incidence and healthcare pressure:
In addition, the Ministry of Health also reported 11 deaths and 723 new cases of COVID-19 among people over 60 years of age in the last week, which is the population group that is monitored in this phase of the pandemic. The care pressure and the cumulative incidence have also risen over seven and fourteen days, respectively.

Currently, in the Canary Islands, there are 167 people admitted to hospitals for coronavirus, of which 17 are in ICU and 150 are in Covid wards. The cumulative incidence over 14 days among people over 60 years of age has gone from 308.90 to 324.64 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a week, and from 154.45 to 181.91 over seven days.

Regarding the 11 people that died in the last week, 7 occurred in Tenerife, 2 in Gran Canaria, 1 in La Gomera, and 1 in El Hierro. In all cases, these people, aged between 76 and 92, had previous pathologies and were hospitalized.

Levels measure hospital pressure:
This new level change for Gran Canaria and La Gomera refers to hospital pressure. In other words, the indicators for the use of health services, referring to the occupancy of beds, are, fundamentally, those that mark the severity caused by COVID-19 and those that are taken into consideration to determine the level of health risk.

In this way, five alert levels are established (from 0 to 4) that assess whether the situation is one of controlled circulation, which would be the lowest, or low, medium, high, or very high risk.

What does it mean, are there restrictions again?
The only measures that remain in force for the entire Archipelago are:
- the compulsory use of masks on public transport and taxis,
- in health/medical centres,
- in pharmacies.

The end of the restrictions on the Islands came as a result of the change of direction in the surveillance and control strategy against COVID-19 when new indicators were established for risk assessment and the focus was placed only on the most vulnerable, the elderly and people with previous pathologies, in addition to monitoring to hospital pressure in conventional beds and in Intensive Care Units (ICU).

This is why, since March, new infections have only been counted in those over 60 years old and are reported twice a week, and not daily, as was done in the acute phase of the pandemic.

The Ministry of Health calls for everyone to get their booster vaccination:
The Ministry is asking everyone in the Canary Islands to act responsibly and get their booster vaccination against COVID-19. It is recommended and available to everyone over 12 years old, even if you don’t have any previous pathology and are not part of the ‘risk’ population.

This is because they want to prevent possible transmission after the sudden rebound in cases in China. Fortunately, the cases are no longer as serious as at the beginning of the pandemic, since in the Canary Islands 88% of the population have had at least one vaccination, which medical science has proved, has reduced the number of serious cases.

The booster can be administered five months after your last dose received against COVID-19, or three months since you were infected, if you are under 60, and five months for those over 60.

You can book your booster jab in the following ways:

- By calling 012 or 922 470 012 or 928 301 012.

- By booking it through the MiCitaPrevia app.

- By booking it through the SCS website.