Covid update: Tenerife and Lanzarote are ‘holding back the Canary Islands’

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, there have been 143 new cases of coronavirus reported today, of which 75 are in Tenerife, 36 in Gran Canaria, 31 in Lanzarote, 1 in La Palma, and none in Fuerteventura, La Gomera, and El Hierro. Additionally there have been no Covid related deaths detected in the islands.

The Ministry of Health has also reported that the outbreak in a gym in Arrecife now has 102 positive cases from it, and account for almost half of all the cases in Lanzarote. They have now finished the screening of contacts related to the outbreak and have carried out 1,382 PCR tests, and so far 16 positives have been detected, which in turn provide 14 secondary cases that have emerged from contacts in their family and social circles.

It is easy to see right now that there is a split in the Canary Islands with the incidence of the virus, as Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura are controlling the pandemic well, with low numbers of new cases, low incidence rates (25 and 8 over 7 days), and low hospital occupancy.

On the other hand, Tenerife and Lanzarote have had 75% of today’s new cases, both have high incidence rates (52 and 106 over 7 days), and over 60% of Covid patients are admitted to hospitals in Tenerife. These two islands are currently ‘holding back the archipelago’ as far as the incidence rates are concerned for tourism, and need to come down as soon as possible.

Looking at the data El Hierro still has an IA7 of 62.8 but as explained before, there are only just over 11,000 people residing on the island so it doesn’t affect any rates for the islands as a whole, and La Gomera and La Palma, with IA7’s of 9.2 and 7.1 aren’t affecting the situation either.