Covid update: All islands stay at same alert level this week

The Ministry of Health has updated the alert levels in the Canary Islands this afternoon, after reviewing the epidemiological report from the Public Health committee with data up to March 16th. The report shows the evolution of the health indicators for Covid in the archipelago, and due to an increase in cases and only a small decrease in hospital pressure, all the islands maintain their current alert levels.

This means that Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro stay at Level 3; and Fuerteventura and Lanzarote at Level 2.

The health alert levels, determined by the Ministry of Health of Spain and the regional health authorities, evaluate the epidemiological situation of each territory, based on hospital pressure (whose occupancy levels by Covid patients are now the determining factors for analysing the trends of the pandemic) and the incidence on the transmission of coronavirus.

CURRENT INDICATOR LEVELS IN THE CANARY ISLANDS:
Care indicators show a favourable evolution and the daily average number of occupied hospital beds has decreased by 18.3% compared to last week, with an average occupancy rate of 5%, it remains at medium risk.

The percentage of occupation in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, and La Gomera has also stayed at medium risk level; Fuerteventura is at low risk, and Lanzarote and El Hierro are at a very low-risk level.

The number of occupied ICU beds also maintains a slight downward trend, decreasing by 12% compared to the previous evaluation. The percentage of occupation in the whole of the Archipelago is 9.7%. Tenerife and Gran Canaria are at a medium risk level, while the rest of the islands remain in controlled circulation, even so, the alert levels in the Canary Islands will remain the same as in previous weeks.

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL INDICATORS:
In the Canary Islands as a whole, between March 8th and 14th, there were 9,162 new cases of Covid reported, which represents an increase of 3.3% in the daily average of new cases in relation to the previous week.

This also responds to a 3.3% increase in the incidence rates over 7 days in the Canary Islands, which went from 407.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 421.1 this week.

All the islands are still at a very high-risk level in this indicator, except Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, which are at a medium and high-risk level, respectively. The island with the biggest increase in the number of cases and incidence rate is Tenerife.

The IA7 for people over 65 years of age has risen by 29%, and all of the islands are at very high risk in this indicator. The greatest increase has been seen in La Palma and La Gomera.

The IA14 fell 3.7% over the last week, although the risk level is still very high in the whole of the Archipelago.

The president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology, Amós García, stated that we are “very close” to being able to eliminate the use of masks indoors because the trend of infections by Covid-19 is “descending” across the country.