The Canary Islands are facing a New Year’s Eve without parties and with family dinners of no more than ten people

The Government makes this measure of containment of the virus more flexible even when the contagion curve does not stop growing, and that already yesterday was close to 5,000 daily cases. And it is that, despite the fact that all the indicators of accumulated incidence in the islands are at very high risk levelsYes, the same does not happen with those referring to hospitalizations. This was specified by the Government spokesman, Julio Pérez, who admitted that, like the traffic light system takes care burden more into account than contagions, “current data support the need to take no action.” However, he stated that, taking into account the contagion data that have been reported in recent days, the Government maintains this matter as a “priority.”

The Executive adopted in the Governing Council this single measure of expanding up to 10 the personsso they can meet in the private sphere, because he considers that “it will contribute to limiting mobility” by “facilitating meetings in private spaces.” At the moment, no decision has been made regarding the January 5 meeting limit, which would remain at a maximum of 6 people on these islands.

Yesterday the Government did proceed to level up the islands of Lanzarote and El Hierro which, from now on, will have to assume the restrictions of the yellow traffic light or Level 2, as well as La Palma and La Gomera. Among other things, this supposes a reduction of the interior capacity to 50% and 75% exterior, limiting the meetings to 8 people and establishing the closure of establishments at 2:00 am. Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Tenerife remain at level 3 for at least another week.

Evolutions

Of these last three islands, Tenerife is the situation that is evolving with the worst indicators. In addition to being the island that monopolizes the most infections (56% of the cases diagnosed during this week), it is also the one where the health system is being saturated the most due to the incidence of Covid-19.

The ICUs of the hospitals on the Islands have almost 20% of hospitalized Covid patients (high risk), while they already occupy 10% of conventional beds (medium risk). On this island there are 213 people hospitalized in conventional beds (12 more than the day before) and 33 people occupying a space in the ICU (2 more than the day before). Just a year ago, the number of people in the ICU in Tenerife amounted to 34 and 256 in the ward.

The situation in Gran Canaria is also deteriorating rapidly, although with less spread of the virus. Their cases have doubled in a week, going to register 6,463 in 7 days, and their hospitalizations have increased by 41% in two weeks. To date, it has 32 people in the ICU (one less than the previous day) and 125 in the ward (16 more than the previous day). This means that their occupation of critical beds is at high risk (16.7%), although that of conventional beds continues to be at low risk (5%).

In this regard, Pérez stressed that, although it seems that the average rate of hospitalization “does not grow too much”, this data can be misleading, since it is precisely where it grows is in the islands with the greatest healthcare capacity.

The Canary Islands are still pending judicial ratification that would endorse the imposition of the limitation of night mobility for three nights indicated in the calendar: New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Eve and Three Kings. The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has 72 hours to respond to the request of the Government of the Canary Islands and, if the resolution is delayed, it could enter into force on December 31. The Executive’s idea is to impose a curfew for this next weekend and at dawn on January 6 from the stipulated closing time of activities, that is, at 2.00 hours in level 2 and at 1.00 hours in level 3 With this measure, one of the most restrictive taken during the sixth wave, the Government wants to prevent a “massive influx of people” from occurring during these days at different points that could be susceptible to mass encounters.

It should be remembered that last July, during the fifth wave, the Executive tried to impose this restriction in some municipalities of Tenerife. However, the Supreme Court denied his request as it was not conceived as “proportional” for the incidence in which it was intended to be implanted (100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants within 14 days) and because the community did not offer data on hospital pressure or hospital pressure at that time. of another type that justify the limitation of a right such as free movement.