Healthcare pressure in the Islands has decreased by 16% in the last two weeks

It is precisely the extreme level of occupancy in the ICU that has led Tenerife to continue for at least one more week – it has already been five – at level 4, while Gran Canaria has managed to drop to level 3 after spending only 21 days in the extreme risk traffic light. However, and with the judicial modifications of the anticovid regulations, the relief of the regulations that should refer to the lowering of the level will not be effective.

A regulatory mess.

This is the case, for example, of the maximum group of people that can be gathered in the same place, which is still 4 at level 3. In addition, there is the circumstance that, due to the different court orders, the rules at level 3 they can be even more restrictive than what has existed until now. In the case of Gran Canaria, which returns to this level of risk, it must once again abide by the curfew of restaurants and other establishments and activities that must close again between midnight and 6 in the morning. A similar circumstance affects gyms that must limit the capacity of 55% that is allowed in level 4.

Judicial shield.

The Government of the Canary Islands hopes to be able to put an end to these normative nonsense as of next Monday, when it will hold an extraordinary Government Council in which it intends to present a decree law that prevents the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) from taking down specific measures to stop the advance of coronavirus infections such as curfew, imposing capacity in restaurants or other crowded interiors or requesting a vaccination certificate in different cases. On August 15, the President of the Government, Ángel Victor Torres, announced that these works were being carried out together with the Ministry of Health to “polish” the text.

Case reduction.

Coronavirus cases maintain a steep decline in all the Islands. In the whole of the Canary Islands, the number of positives has decreased by 27% compared to the previous week, while in Tenerife this reduction is 26% and in Gran Canaria 30%. Yesterday, Tenerife registered 86 new infections, so it adds up to 784 in the last week. Meanwhile, Gran Canaria registered 112 which, added to its weekly balance, make a total of 662 cases. The decrease in cases has also occurred in the smaller islands, which also continue to reduce both their levels of contagion and their welfare pressures.

Almost 75% are already vaccinated.

As the fifth wave dissipates, the vaccination campaign tries to continue to capture the laggards. In this way, 74.44% of the population over 12 years of age in the Islands have already been vaccinated with two doses, while 82.2% have received at least one dose. Since the campaign began, the Canary Islands Health Service has administered 2,915,811 doses of vaccines, of the 3,307,610 received, which represents 88.15% of the total. The highest risk groups are practically 100% vaccinated, this includes residents and nursing home health and social health personnel; health personnel; large dependents and primary caregivers; vulnerable people; groups with essential functions such as teachers and police and people with very high risk conditions. By age, the group with the highest proportion of vaccinated is the group from 50 to 59 years (95%), followed by those from 60 to 65 (82%) and those from 40 to 49 (75%). Among young people, those between 12 and 19 years of age are those with the greatest protection (67.7% with one dose), followed by people between 30 and 39 years of age (62.5). Behind the vaccination queue are those between 20 and 29 years of age, of whom only 57.2% have been vaccinated.

CC questions going back to school.

A few days after starting the school year, the measures proposed by the Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, to return to the classroom have not convinced the Canary Islands Coalition. Among her proposals, the minister advocates maintaining the mandatory mask from the age of six, advocates presence at all stages, maintaining the so-called bubble groups, expanding the ratios and shortening the distance between students to 1.2 meters instead of the meter and a half. For the National Secretary General of the Canary Coalition, Fernando Clavijo, these measures – which have also been complied with by the Government of the Canary Islands – represent a new “improvisation” on the part of the regional Executive and a way of “burdening teachers and teams even more managers ». The leader of the Canarian nationalists expressed his concern because the message that has been transmitted “implies that the health alert is no longer so worrying, a situation – he added – that is not real.” For her part, Beatriz Calzada, spokesperson for the Canary Nationalist Group’s Education Commission, described the decision to reduce the distance of students from 1.50 to 1.20 meters as “erratic” based on what the experts and the recommendations of the State that “does not establish it as a norm, but leaves it to the discretion of the epidemiological situation.”