New cases have increased sharply as self test results are now included in totals

The sixth wave of the pandemic has had far more cases in the Canary Islands than the data has shown, according to the Ministry of Health, as thousands of positive self-diagnosis test results that were registered via the Covid helpline or the MiAutoTestCovid website have been left out of the statistic as they have been pending confirmation.

In a press release, they have explained that these positives, which were communicated during January up to February 20^th, will be incorporated into the statistical data over the next few days, as the existing stats are of positive test results in health centres and hospitals and not via self diagnosis.

The effect of this has been seen already in the last two days as data shows that new cases have jumped to 2,063 on Tuesday and 2,176 yesterday, but looking deeper into the figures 700 of Tuesday’s total (32%) were infections confirmed by antigen tests from chemists, as were 900 of yesterday’s total (41%).

The Ministry has explained that these are now to be incorporated because the incidence rates of the islands will have been underestimated during this period as these positives have not been taken into account, however, the health authorities are now focusing on healthcare pressure indicators when managing the pandemic.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Health notified of the death of four infected people aged between 77 and 92 years old. Two people died in Gran Canaria, one in Tenerife and one in La Palma.

Gran Canaria registered the most new cases yesterday with 1,031; Tenerife added 821; Lanzarote 129; Fuerteventura 126; La Palma 56; La Gomera 13, and El Hierro 1.

Hospital pressure continues to drop and yesterday there were 307 people with active infection hospitalized in wards and 45 in ICUs.