Minister of Health: ‘The pandemic is not over in the Canary Islands’

The Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo, said earlier today during his visit to the Insular Materno Infantil Hospital in Las Palmas, that the pandemic is NOT yet over in the Canary Islands, as the epidemiological curve has reached a plateau where it could go up or down, even though people want to think it is.

“At the moment it is in a stationary situation, which most of the country finds itself in, but we must be aware that it can go up far more easily than down, but we are in a different position than before with less hospital pressure and less restrictions in place,” he said.

Trujillo said that the restrictions have been relaxed, as in the rest of the world, with the aim of living with the virus in a "more normal" way. However, he added that prudence must be maintained because the pandemic is not yet over and neither is learning to learn how to deal with the disease, although he does believe that the Canary Islands can continue the de-escalation process to eliminate all anti-Covid measures.

“Everything points to a ‘normal scenario’, and except for some surprises, we will continue on a path in which all kinds of restrictions disappear."

Up until last Friday, the last time the data was updated, the Canary Islands had very high-risk transmission indicators, with an average of just over 1,800 new cases per day.

In addition to this, the archipelago has the highest percentage of the BA.2 ‘stealth’ omicron variant in the whole of Spain, which is even more transmissible than the original omicron variant.