As Tenerife moves back into Level 3 restrictions, many people are blaming Santa Cruz and La Laguna for the situation, which yes it is true they have the most cases, but there are 12 municipalities of Tenerife that are at high or very high-risk incidence for Covid, that is with an IA14 above 150, according to data sent yesterday by the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS).
It is important to remember that it is the 14-day incidence rate that is taken into account as a more accurate indicator, as the 7 day can fluctuate more quickly, and that the amount of cases per 100,000 inhabitants is a global standard for measuring incidence.
The 12 municipalities and there 14 day incidence rates are:
Vilaflor: 408.16
Santa Cruz: 262.91
San Miguel de Abona: 254.38
Granadilla de Abona: 245.94
La Laguna: 228.43
Arico: 197.26
Candelaria: 179.69
Tegueste: 177.20
El Tanque: 175.32
Arona: 166.71
El Sauzal: 156.60
Adeje: 150.93
In the case of Vilaflor, it is necessary to take into account the low population registered by the village located at the highest altitude in Spain.
It should be noted that the situation changes if the incidence of new cases accumulated over seven days is taken as a reference. Taking the IA7 as a value, the municipalities of Adeje, Arico, Arona, Granadilla de Abona, La Laguna, San Miguel de Abona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tegueste and Vilaflor are still on this list, and Arafo, Garachico and San Juan de La Rambla are added to it.
This means that the situation during the last week has improved in three of the municipalities with the highest IA14: Candelaria, El Sauzal and El Tanque, who haven’t had a single case in the last week. All this data was analyzed at the mayors' meeting held on Thursday at the Teatro Leal, in La Laguna, just hours after the Government decided the island was moving to Level 3.
The new restrictions have come into effect today, curiously the same day that the Ministry of Health of Spain has changed the rules for the use of masks in public spaces, and many Tenerife mayors have expressed their concerns about this measure and recommend that their use is maintained because the epidemiological situation is not the best at present.
José Manuel Bermúdez, mayor of Santa Cruz, said last night, that the situation is "worrying", but calls for the data to be interpreted "with caution" due to the high mobility that is registered in the Metropolitan Area. In the case of the island's capital, he explained that “there are thousands of people who come to work in the city every day from outside of the municipality, a circumstance that must be taken into account because contagion does not always occur in the city, but in another area of the island, as the incidence is very dispersed.”
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, the mayor of La Laguna, also expressed his concern at the fact "that we have lowered our guard at a time when many believed that we had overcome the pandemic."
The upward trend in the number of infections that the island of Tenerife has experienced in the course of the last two weeks is one of the issues that experts are analyzing, taking into account that there are factors that are almost identical to those of Gran Canaria, i.e. vaccination rate and the number of trackers, among others.
Among the emergency measures that have been taken in the last few hours in Tenerife is the opening of a vaccination centre in the Pabellon Santiago Martín in La Laguna. The first intention is to have as many vaccination shifts as possible, although the request to be open 24 hours a day has not yet been confirmed.
These actions, especially public awareness, will determine the evolution of the statistics related to the control of the pandemic caused by Covid-19 over the next two weeks, and determine which Level Tenerife will be in from July 7th.
