The Canarian Government yesterday took another important step in the de-escalation of the Covid pandemic, announcing that hospital occupancy would be the determining factor in deciding which tier of restrictions to place islands in.
This new approach reduces the importance of infection rates, which have recently risen sharply on Lanzarote. The Canarian Government have attributed this increase to the recent decision to permit positive DIY test results to be registered as new cases.
Despite this rise, the fact that the island’s hospital is virtually empty of Covid patients prompted the Canarian Government’s health committee to maintain Lanzarote on Level 2 yesterday.
In any case, a drop to Level 1 or a rise to Level 3 would have made no difference to restrictions. The Canaries abolished the link between risk levels (which are established by Spanish government guidelines) and tiers of restrictions (which are decided by regional governments) two weeks ago, leaving only two tiers of restrictions. Islands at risk levels 1, 2 and 3 will all be subject to the same, increasingly light restrictions, while those on Level 4 will be subject to slightly stricter measures.
Those restrictions themselves are also being relaxed. On Monday, most activities returned to 100% capacity indoors and outdoors.
All eyes are now on Madrid. The guidelines for risk which still apply throughout Spain now seem increasingly detached from the positions taken by regional governments. However, Spain is still far from reaching the risk level that would be required to declare an end to the health crisis.
Yesterday, Health Minister Carolina Darias refused to comment on rumours that mask rules may be relaxed before Easter. Darias simply said that the date when masks would not be need to worn indopors in public places was “getting closer every day”.
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