SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Sep 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of the Canary Islands has agreed this Thursday, after analyzing the epidemiological data of each of the islands, to lower Tenerife to level 2 of health alert from this midnight, thanks to the fact that it has maintained the downward trend of infections, while Fuerteventura will continue in level 3. La Gomera, La Palma, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Graciosa continue at level 1 and Gran Canaria at level 2.
At the press conference after the Governing Council, the Deputy Minister of the Presidency, Antonio Olivera, recalled that last week he anticipated that the epidemiological data of Tenerife were following a positive trend that has been maintained during the last two weeks, hence that Public Health has recommended to lower the island from level 3 to 2.
Regarding Fuerteventura, Antonio Olivera indicated that at the Council’s last press conference he already said that it was necessary to be “cautious” because it was the only island that was having an unfavorable evolution in some indicators, mainly in the index accumulated at seven days and in the percentage of tests that were testing positive.
Olivera stressed that, a week later, instead of reversing this upward trend, it has continued to strengthen and has worsened, and today the island has a seven-day accumulated index that is not only double that of the rest of the islands, but also it is even higher than the incidence at fourteen days in the rest of the Archipelago, which reveals a “very particular” epidemiological situation.
He also added that the percentage of tests that are positive, out of the total number of tests carried out, is almost 10 percent, which is much higher (more than double) than the average for the Canary Islands and the rest of the islands. . Therefore, he said, they are “clear” indicators that the epidemiological evolution in Fuerteventura is “worrying”.
The deputy counselor also emphasized that Puerto del Rosario is the only municipality in the Canary Islands in which the accumulated incidence is in very high risk parameters and the Public Health services have also identified that transmission on the island continues a “very dispersed” pattern, which is why the combination of all these elements has led us to consider continuing to keep Fuerteventura at level 3.
The deputy councilor hopes that in the next few days the island will be able to reverse the trend in accumulated incidence and that the hospital occupancy data, which are low, will not grow.
VACCINATION.
Regarding vaccination, Antonio Olivera highlighted that today 81.3% of the target population (people over 12 years old) have the complete schedule and 84.07% have at least one dose. He added that in recent weeks, as the vaccine has spread, the advance of vaccination has been “slower” not because of insufficient resources, but because it “costs more” to get some groups to get vaccinated.
For this reason, the deputy counselor wanted to recall, once again, the relevance of the COVID-19 vaccine “not only to safeguard one’s own and individual health, but fundamentally for the protection it generates for the population as a whole.” Consequently, he has once again launched a message to encourage and encourage those people who have not yet been vaccinated to do so because “it is the most effective way to fight the pandemic.”
