The Ministry of Health has said several times that it won’t rule out transferring coronavirus patients to other communities to reduce the pressure on Intensive Care Units at hospitals that are saturated and the Balearic Government says it’s ready to welcome them.
“The Balearic Islands are willing to show solidarity with the communities that are in the worst situation. Now there is no demand but if the effort has to be made and it will be done,” said Javier Arranz, the spokesperson for the Regional Committee on Infectious Diseases.
Just over half of the ICU beds on the islands are already full and some patients will be hospitalised for two to three weeks.
173 extra beds for the seriously ill have already been added to public hospitals, as part of the Government’s contingency plans.
On Tuesday 95 of them were occupied, which represents 10.6% of the active cases. Five patients are doing much better, their respirators have been removed and they’re now breathing on their own.
On Tuesday, there were 1,069 people in the Balearic Islands with coronavirus, up 6.9% from Monday but significantly less than the 20% daily increases a week ago.
So far 111 people have been discharged and 43 fatalities, five of the deaths happened at the weekend but were not recorded until Tuesday.
"Confirmations are recorded after the patient's medical records have been reviewed and the cause of death has been verified so that there is no doubt as to the reason for the deaths," said Arranz. "For this reason, until yesterday the deaths of two women at Son Llàtzer Hospital and three men in Sant Joan de Déu, who died between Friday and Sunday had not been reported."
On Monday, Minorca reported its first death from Covid-19.
Deceleration
Apart from the slight rise in new cases on Tuesday, for the last seven days the number of new infections has gradually decreased.
Just over a week ago the number of new cases was tripling every four days from 100 to more than 400, but Tuesday’s data showed that the rate of increase is now 1.41 in the Balearic Islands and 1.47 nationwide.
Last week, between 80 and 100 new cases were detected every day, but the pace is continuing to slow down.
But the total number of cases accounted for does not reflect the actual number of people who are infected.
Only a limited number of people have been tested and if everyone was tested there’s little doubt that several hidden cases would be discovered.