The Canary Islands have started the year 2022 adding an average of six deaths with daily covid. Since the beginning of the year, the Archipelago has reported the death of 38 people, 6 of them today, during the celebration of Kings. Five of these deaths have been reported on the island of Tenerife and one on Gran Canaria. Tenerife continues to be the island most affected by the sixth wave of coronavirus starring omicron, having registered 24 deaths since the beginning of the year, that is, 63% of the total.
The deceased are consistent with an increasing number of infected and with a sanitary saturation that is not relieved and that threatens to worsen in the coming weeks. The Canary Islands have registered today, for the second consecutive day, more than 5,000 cases. The specific figure stood at 5,088 positives in covid, of which 2,338 were registered in Tenerife, 1,782 in Gran Canaria, 392 in Lanzarote, 251 in La Palma, 246 in Fuerteventura, 47 in El Hierro and 35 in La Gomera.
In this sense, the growth of the epidemic curve has slowed down in the Islands, given that this week the number of positives is only 12% higher than the previous week. It should be remembered that during the sixth wave, the growth of the curve reached up to 186%, that is, three times the incidence from one week to the next. In Tenerife, the curve is even decreasing, being the cases verified during this week (11,997) 6% less than the previous (12,807). Gran Canaria has also suffered a slowdown in its growth speed which, having stood at 118% in the previous week, yesterday it fell to 23%.
However, this reduction in cases has its origin in a decrease in diagnostic tests carried out by the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) and not in a true turnaround in the epidemic wave. And, since January 31, the health services of the islands with the highest health saturation, have the possibility of performing fewer diagnostic tests in order to alleviate the burden of care. This new protocol for periods of high incidence prioritizes vulnerable people and those who suffer from severe covid, which means that mild cases would go undiagnosed, at least through public health.
The number of income in the Islands amounts to 490, the second highest of the pandemic
However, on an individual basis, the person can perform an antigen test and communicate it to their doctor to be registered as such. The implementation of this protocol is already noticeable in the Archipelago that has gone from performing an average of 20,000 daily tests to do 16,000 a day, that is, 20% less. 16,669 were carried out yesterday. Experts, such as the head of epidemiology of the Government of the Canary Islands, Amos García Rojas, place the “stabilization” of the curve at the end of January.
And although this new regulations it can alleviate the hospital pressure in Primary, and in the Emergencies, the one that hospitals suffer is every day greater. With 58,591 active cases in the Archipelago, 490 people are in hospital admission on the Islands (3 more than the previous day). The pressure in the critical care units has remained practically unchanged for a week – it has been found in 60 patients – however, with regard to hospital admissions, there are more every day, reaching 430 yesterday. This figure It is not the highest in the pandemic, but it does exceed the number of hospitalized in the first four waves. The fifth wave continues to be the one that registered the most patients on the ward, a total of 490.
ICUs endure
The ICUs, however, were in a much worse situation at the time than they are today. At that time there were a hundred people in intensive care units, which represented 16% of total admissions. Today, thanks to vaccines, the percentage of people who end up in the ICU is much lower, 12%. It should also be remembered that before the serum existed, two out of ten people who were admitted for covid ended up in critical condition and needing invasive intubation. Another circumstance that is taking place thanks to the vaccination is that the recovery of the people who enter is faster and, therefore, they are discharged much earlier than in previous waves, allowing the care capacity to be stabilized.
In this context, the Government of the Canary Islands has convened an extraordinary council for tomorrow, Friday, where it intends to analyze the epidemiological situation and update the levels at which each island falls. The opposition has not been slow to demand that new measures be put in place in the Canary Islands to prevent the curve from continuing without brake. Taking into account the latest epidemiological report (referring to January 5), it is not ruled out that Tenerife pass to level 4, given the increase in the occupancy of both the ICU and the plant, which is the largest of the islands and is at a high risk level. Its indicators of cumulative incidence and positivity are at very high risk, like that of the rest of the islands.
