The number of Covid patients in hospitals has reduced by 35% in February

The drop in the accumulated incidence rates of coronavirus in the Canary Islands is already being reflected in a positive way in hospital pressure, although the archipelago's health centres continue to have a higher level of occupancy of conventional beds by Covid patients than during previous waves.

So far in February, the number of Covid patients admitted with the virus in Canarian hospitals has decreased by 35%, going from 854 people hospitalized at the end of January to 555 yesterday, with 468 still active with the virus and 87 who have now tested negative but are still in wards with various illnesses.

In the case of Covid patients being treated in intensive care, this has dropped by 36%. Currently, there are 75 Covid patients in the ICUs (62 active cases and 13 that have tested negative) compared to 116 just 16 days ago.

However, the islands maintain high-risk hospital pressure with around 10% of conventional beds occupied by Covid patients, and 15% of those in ICU.

Regarding the two capital islands, Tenerife has ICU pressure at high risk, with 18% of beds occupied by Covid patients, while the indicator for conventional beds is at medium risk, with an occupancy that has dropped to 9%. In Gran Canaria, both indicators are at high risk, since Covid patients occupy 15% of beds in wards and around 20% in ICUs.

In the rest of the islands, only Fuerteventura and El Hierro have the indicator of conventional beds at medium risk, while in the rest, the hospital pressure parameters are at low or very low-risk levels.

With this and other data, the Ministry of Health will study the epidemiological situation and update the health alert levels accordingly on the islands today, as part of their progressive de-escalation plan for the Canary Islands.

The head of the Epidemiology Department of Public Health, Amós García, explains: “The elimination of the measures for a return to normality has to be linked to the incidence of the pandemic at all times. You have to be very careful when removing restrictions. You can't remove everything at once because there is a risk of resurgence,” stressing that the number of daily cases shows that the virus is still circulating heavily among people.