You can see all the data, updated daily, on our corona virus confirmed data tracking page
The Canary Islands Government’s Health Department on Wednesday afternoon released the very latest data on the 2,391 cases of COVID-19 corona virus detected since the crisis began, with one new positive case recorded on Tuesday. Currently, in the Canary Islands, there are still just 63 active cases, of which 54 are receiving care at home, 9 are hospitalised and since Tuesday, for the first time in many months, no patients are currently needing to be treated in ICUs.
Since January 31, when the very first case of corona virus in Spain was detected, a German tourist visiting the island of La Gomera, there have been a total of 2,166 people who have recovered from the infection, registered epidemiological discharges, 17 of which were discharged on Tuesday, and the total number of deaths stands at 162, the most recent of which was four days ago.
The most COVID19 detections among Canary Islands were found to be on the island of Tenerife, which has seen an accumulated 1,501 cases; Gran Canaria detected 602 cases; La Palma, 107 cases; Lanzarote, 84 cases; Fuerteventura, 46 cases; La Gomera, 8 cases and El Hierro, 3. There are also a further 40 people who have been diagnosed and treated here on the islands that may be tourists, port area workers or people without permeant residence here in the Archipelago.
Of the 162 dead 110 were on Tenerife; 39 on Gran Canaria; 7 on La Palma; 6 on Lanzarote, with none on La Gomera, El Hierro, La Graciosa or Fuerteventura.
Diagnostic tests
The Canary Islands Health Service have carried out a total of 134,373 PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests for the diagnosis of existing COVID-19 infections since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
Suspected cases
The Ministry of Health have been adapting to new protocols too and report that as of 20:00 yesterday; health professionals, in their trace and tracking work, have detected a current total of 206 potential or suspected cases on the Canary Islands.
The new Ministry protocol establishes that a suspicious case is considered to be “any person with a clinical picture of acute respiratory infection, presenting a sudden onset of any severity that, among other symptoms, include a fever, cough or feeling of shortness of breath. Other atypical symptoms are also to be assessed (loss of taste, loss of smell, diarrhoea, muscle pain, etc.) under clinical criteria as possible suspects.”
The protocol establishes that these people are tested with PCR within the first 24 hours. So this index is not cumulative, but these people will be shown to be either positive or negative within 24 to 72 hours, which is the time it takes to carry out the tests, transfer, microbiological treatment and notifications.
Contagion prevention measures
The Ministry of Health has reminded all member of the public to stick to the rules and to avoid infections. The Ministry of Health have warned of the need to comply with hygienic regulations to avoid further outbreaks. One of the main sources of contagion to be addressed, they say, is intra-family. They warn that personal security measures should be treated very seriously during any family visits and among people living together, keeping safety distances, not sharing items such as cutlery and using masks when necessary.
The use of masks is already mandatory for all people over six years of age, whenever it is not possible to maintain the minimum interpersonal distance of two meters in public spaces, whether indoors or outdoors. Likewise, hygienic surgical masks that cover the nose and mouth are also recommended for children between 3 and 5 years old. Their use will not be required from people who present some type of existing respiratory distress, those who have duly justified health reasons or those who, due to their situation of disability or dependency, present behavioural changes that make it unfeasible.
This latest report also lists the numbers of people diagnosed with COVID-19 by microbiological criteria (detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA by rt-PCR) in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.
The time window covered by the report begins on January 28, a day before the first person detected with COVID-19 in the Canary Islands started to present symptoms.
