Son Espases Hospital in Palma has seen a “significant” increase in coronavirus infections in the Balearics over the past seven days, although it believes that the islands are “close” to reaching the peak, probably next week.
The head of the hospital’s Epidemiology Service, Dr. Antonio Oliver, blamed this increase on the summer and recent festivities, such as Sant Joan.
He explained that the dominant strain in the archipelago is currently the subvariant of Omicron BA.5 (80 percent), followed by BA.2 (15 percent) and BA.4 (five percent).
“It is possible that the Balearics was one of the first communities in which this new variant has spread very significantly,” the doctor said.
He stated that “we can now clearly talk about a seventh wave” and not a small one, as he said in his last interview.
“There is no doubt, the social events over the past few days and the time we are in have caused quite a lot of transmission”, he stressed.
Asked for a real estimate of the number of cases, Oliver pointed out that, although “it is difficult to make an exact prediction”, there are around 1,000 per day, while the hospital formally analyses around 100.
Finally, in relation to hospitalisations due to the disease, the doctor has avoided specifying on this issue, although he did state that admissions “have increased quite a lot” over the past few days days.