Government will review alert levels today, but should parameters be reformulated?

The Canary Islands Government will review the alert levels today in this afternoons Governing Council meeting, and look at the parameters they are based on, as over the last week infections have done more than get worse, they have spiralled. They will especially analyse the Accumulated Incidence rates over seven and 14 days, the 7-day incidence rate among the population over 65, the positivity rate of tests, and the occupancy of Covid beds in hospital wards and ICUs, to see if the scale and system needs to be updated due to the evolution of the pandemic and vaccination.

The president of the Tenerife Cabildo, Pedro Martín, acknowledged yesterday after the TSJC rejected the curfew, that he had no arguments against Tenerife going into level 4 based on these parameters. On the same basis, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura rise to level 3, and except for Lanzarote, which is still at moderate risk will stay at level 1, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro could go up to level 2.

However, yesterday the Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo, admitted that without the curfew, which he described as the "most powerful tool" to combat infections apart from vaccines, perhaps the Government will be forced to "discuss and reformulate restrictive measures of the different levels to stop a tremendously worrying situation, which will require an extraordinary effort of the entire public to achieve.”

This means two things, under the current evolution and trend of the pandemic, not just here, but across Europe, the same pattern is being seen in the countries where the number of infections is increasing, where they are spiralling at levels not seen before, but there are fewer deaths and less hospital admissions, so is it time to change the parameters that set the levels, and change the restrictions at each level to meet this evolution with what we’ve learnt over the last 15 months?

Be aware though, hospitals and health authorities are concerned and some are feeling the pressure, in fact, the HUC hospital in Tenerife activated its emergency contingency plan yesterday due to an increase in occupancy by Covid patients, and are urging the younger generation to get vaccinated as soon as possible, as that is still ultimately the key to beating the virus.

Trujillo, presented the balance of activity of the Genomics department of ITER in Parliament yesterday and was pleased because in just one year of the pandemic the Canary Islands have gone, in research terms, "from prehistoric to the first level of the first world", especially in the sequencing of the virus.

ITER Technician José Miguel Lorenzo explained that the Delta variant has become the predominant variant in new cases, and is increasing all the time, to which another technician, Carlos Flores added, that with this strain "one infected person can infect another five or eight people in transmissibility is so high making it so easy to pass on and catch."