68% of residents in centers for the elderly in the Canary Islands have contracted covid – Canarias7

Archive image from March 28, 2020, of workers and residents of the Taliarte geriatric complex giving encouragement in full confinement. / C74,879 people have been infected in the residences of the islands, the community with the fewest deaths in this group, with 161 deaths The residential centers for the elderly in the Canary Islands currently accommodate 7,224 elderly people, of which, 67.5%, that is, a total of 4,879 people have already been infected by coronavirus, according to data on the incidence of covid in Spanish social health centers collected in the latest report prepared by Imserso. 96.7% of the institutionalized elderly in whom the infection was confirmed recovered from the disease, while 3.3% died with the virus. Specifically, from the beginning of the health crisis until August 7, 161 people with confirmed infection have died, while another seven people died with symptoms compatible with covid but without being diagnosed. EVOLUTION Influenza infection Since the withdrawal of anticovid measures, 2,300 people have been infected in centers for the elderly Reduction in lethality Since April, 35 people have died of the virus in residences, which represents a case fatality rate of 1.5% Less vulnerable Before the sixth wave, the covid lethality in nursing homes was 31.7%, that is, one in three infected died Almost half of the people who have been infected in the Canary Islands nursing homes, Specifically, 46% have been infected in the last four months, coinciding with the relaxation of anticovid measures. Specifically, in this period 2,300 people have been infected. Between April and August, the lethality due to covid among users of nursing homes in the archipelago has been 1.5%, since 35 people of the 2,300 infected died. This rate is far from that registered in this type of social health center until December 2021, before the sixth wave and the effect of the vaccines was widely noted. In that period, of 293 people infected in the island nursing homes, 93 died, that is, the lethality of covid among residents was 31.7%. In the opinion of the head of the Epidemiology and Prevention Section of the General Directorate of Public Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Amós García Rojas, the fact that almost half of the people who reside in the centers for the elderly in the Canary Islands have had the infection is positive and remember that the archipelago is the community that has registered the fewest fatalities in these social and health centers. “In a context as vulnerable as residences, the deceased have been very few and that shows the good functioning of vaccines,” says the epidemiologist. The president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology recognizes that, although the vaccine does not prevent infection, it does reduce the risk of having severe complications, something that has been seen in the last two waves in residences. “It was when the vaccines arrived and the tremendous impact that there was on the number of infections did not translate into an increase in mortality in the most vulnerable population,” he says. In any case, he recognizes that the elderly continue to be the main victims of the virus. “Vulnerability to Sars-Cov-2 is linked to the age factor. The older you are, the more risk of severe complications.” In fact, García affirms that, before the older population was vaccinated against covid, those infected died, mainly, of bilateral pneumonia, while now the deaths occur because the infection decompensates previous pathologies.