The time is back when everyone has one or more acquaintances who have tested positive for COVID. And the feeling corresponds to the figures, experts agree in pointing out that the Balearic Islands are seeing the seventh wave of growth of contagions of the pandemic, the least mediatic of all of them and also the most uncertain, not knowing restrictions to stop it and that the variant now circulating has a high immune escape.
A week ago the Microbiology laboratory of Son Espases observed an exponential growth of positives. Most of them, they warn, are already of the BA.5 subvariant of omicron, between 60 and 70%, which means that all the alarms are turned on.
Symptoms
The symptoms of this new sub-strain «are very mild», clarifies the spokesman of the regional committee of infectious diseases, Javier Arranz. However, «immunity is skipped three months after the last vaccine booster,» he warns. And «yes, there is a significant increase, the feeling is that we are in an upward trend, accelerated,» continues the expert.
In the absence of the update of cases that the Ministry makes on Fridays, last week the incidence in over 60 years in the Balearic Islands (as will be recalled now only the diagnostic test is done to this age group, along with the rest of vulnerable people) was 660 cases per 100,000 inhabitants at 14 days. This is somewhat higher than the state average. In addition, yesterday it was learned that there are 220 people admitted to a hospital in the Islands because of COVID, 60 more than a week ago. Of these, 203 are on the ward and 17 in an ICU, whose occupancy rate is 4.7%.
«There is a new wave and we do not know if it will be important, but everything is coming together again: mobility, Sant Joan, concerts... In the end the message, with the current picture, is: take care of your own, those who can have a bad time, which is the most important thing of all,» warns Arranz. «The elderly, the immunocompromised, pregnant women... can become infected and it can be a problem,» he concludes.
New reminder
And if anything is known about the pandemic, it is that when the number of infections increases, in the end it has repercussions in hospitals and in deaths. The Balearic Islands has registered five more in the last week and there are now 1,421 people who have lost their lives due to the pandemic.
The positive information comes from the trend registered in South Africa, where this subvariant was detected for the first time and «it did not last long there», recalls Javier Arranz. It is also expected that after the summer a new reminder of the vaccine can be supplied, this time more updated to the circulating virus. In the meantime, a strong expansion is expected in the next two weeks, so caution is called for in order not to return to the gates of a change of strategy, more restrictive.