Coronavirus in Fuerteventura - Discussion

[Captain Sensible]

A big tanker lorry pulled up outside my house this morning and sprayed what I presume was disinfectant and water all along the front wall, gates and the space between us and next door's house.

I can't imagine what good it has done.

[Johnrgby]

Hi, Stephen, they were doing the same thing outside El Centro de Salud in Antigua last week, all it seemed to achieve is annoy the cleaning staff as everyone was carrying it inside on their shoes.

[Ducks]

A big tanker lorry pulled up outside my house this morning and sprayed what I presume was disinfectant and water all along the front wall, gates and the space between us and next door's house.

I can't imagine what good it has done.

Considering we have one neighbour who walks around spitting on the ground constantly, I expect it's to stop people treading in that and bringing it into their homes if they haven't switched to an indoor/outdoor shoe system (which I would recommend with what's going on— you should still be able to get flip-flops or plastic sandals at Dino's or Spars).

The dirty so-and-so did it right literally hours after the spraying was done. I was so irritated! He had a tissue, as well, so there was absolutely no need. Some people just have no regard for public health or good manners. 

Sounds like the guys doing your place aren't great on their aim, though! I'm not sure people do much walking on the fronts of walls. Perhaps it's to stop animals from rubbing against them and bringing the virus back to their owners that way?

[Lorena]

Translated using google FuerteventuraHoy today.

In the morning of today a new shipment has been received from China, the fourth that the regional executive makes through direct purchase by the regional executive

Includes basic material for the daily use of professionals, including 516,000 type 2 surgical masks, 45,080 FPP2 masks, 1,600 coveralls and 3,000 gowns


Arrival at the Gran Canaria airport of a plane from China, with medical supplies for the Archipelago health and social health centers. EFE Photo / Quique Curbelo
The Canary Islands Government Health Department has today received a new shipment of medical supplies from China and purchased directly by the regional Executive to deal with the spread of COVID-19. The merchandise, which arrived on a plane at 11:30 am today, is the fourth shipment purchased directly.


The merchandise includes 516,000 type 2 surgical masks, 45,080 FPP2 masks, 1,600 coveralls and 3,000 gowns for health and socio-health personnel who are facing the COVID-19 pandemic in the Canary Islands. It is a basic material for daily consumption in all health centers, both for Hospital Care and Primary Care.


Arrival at the Gran Canaria airport of a plane from China, with medical supplies for the Archipelago health and social health centers. EFE Photo / Quique Curbelo
This material will be completed with another shipment, also of direct acquisition by the Canarian Government, which will arrive in the next few hours with which the necessary supplies of equipment for the coming weeks will be guaranteed. So far, the regional executive has made an investment of 16 million euros for the different batches of material that will arrive each week and which is complemented by those sent by the Ministry of Health.

In total, the material received today is in addition to 2,110,000 surgical masks, 58,200 diagnostic kits, 7,500 protective screens, 4,000 protective glasses, 505,000 nitrile gloves, 33,540 FFP2 masks, 23,200 plastic surgical gowns, and 100 overalls integral. In addition to 28 respirators for patients affected by COVID-19 and 1,750 swabs to collect samples for diagnostic PCR.

[milestone 11]

Official update (as of yesterday 8PM):

1,858 cases of COVID-19 Coronavirus since the beginning of the crisis. 738 people hospitalised of which 141 in ICU, 386 discharged (19 in Fuerteventura - thanks Lorena) and 94 deceased.

All cases by island:

Tenerife 1,210
Gran Canaria 468
La Palma 70
Lanzarote 64
Fuerteventura 37
La Gomera 7
El Hierro 3

The total number of affected health professionals is 389.

New cases in the past 24 hours: 24 cases - 1.3% growth.

An increase of 36 HCP's in 48 hours. Staggering.

[milestone 11]

Could this be due to the fact that HCP's are being tested straight away due to being in contact with infected patients on daily basis and the rest of the public only if they had been around someone, who recently tested positive? 🤔

I'm sure that you're right Sam. In real terms though, there is an increase of 133 in two days, 36 of these are HCP's which is 27%. That number is horrifying to me. I have to wonder whether these poor people have sufficient PPE.

Edit.
Based upon overall figures, HCP's account for 21% of the total.

[Ducks]

Makes sense. We are now seeing the infections in the health professionals caused 2 weeks ago (2 weeks into lockdown, who themselves got infected before lockdown happened) when new cases were presenting at rapid acceleration to health centres for testing and treatment. Now they have more test kits, they will be able to test the HCPs who appear fine (and not just people presenting with severe symptoms) and this will show an increase in active cases, which doesn't necessarily mean hospitalisations or deaths. 

Remember: positive doesn't equal patient. 

While it is alarming that there are HCPs infected and unable to work, it does not mean they are ill or dying or going to die. Many people who test positive have minimal symptoms. The majority, except those with most severe symptoms, recover within the month. 

At this point, the numbers in so many countries are going to rise and fall based on the availability of test kits more than anything else. It's very hard to infer much of anything from the numbers, beyond that it generally seems to be slowing in terms of the distancing, the infection rate is much higher than originally thought, and the morality rate is not as high as we initially feared.

I'm not saying we shouldn't keep posting or discussing them, but it's important to remember that they are so heavily affected by so many factors that they can't be taken as a 100% accurate reflection of how many people are sick, going to get sick, or dying. It's frustrating, but between governments wanting to manage information to suit their needs and the worldwide shortage of testing equipment, it's just how it is.

[milestone 11]

Makes sense. We are now seeing the infections in the health professionals caused 2 weeks ago...

Are you an HCP Ducks?

[milestone 11]

Encouraging news https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho...60481.html

[Ducks]

Makes sense. We are now seeing the infections in the health professionals caused 2 weeks ago...

Are you an HCP Ducks?

Thankfully not— it's not a field I would want to be in at this time given the challenges they are and will be facing.

However, given the two-week incubation estimate, it seems very obvious that you will see an increase in HCP infections about two weeks after the first big increase in the general population. The general population had to interact with HCPs to get those tests, and to be treated for the symptoms which necessitated them. Some medical personnel would have been exposed in their daily lives outside of work, the same as the rest of us, but many will have been infected in the course of duty. 

If you're going from maybe passing an infected person in the supermarket or restaurant to working face-to-face with multiple infected patients in an enclosed environment for extended periods, it's inevitable to see an increase. Supplies of PPE will also have begun to diminish at that point (although I haven't heard the same horror stories about shortages here as in the US and UK, I think it's reasonable to assume they required resupply based on the fact that they just took possession of a huge shipment from China), and that would exacerbate the problem. We've seen the same pattern all over the world, though perhaps not as markedly as here. 

I expect we are now at least temporarily over the worst of the "hump" here on the island— we are fortunate to have had a low number of cases initially, and we will have been on lockdown for five weeks minimum, so it should have mainly burned itself out around here. However, once we open the doors to overseas travel, all bets are off, especially considering there are countries in Europe like Sweden which have instituted no lockdowns and because mainland Spain has suffered so badly. 

Hopefully the vaccine linked above will go some way towards preventing a bad second wave, but how they will be able to roll that out fast enough is the big question.