More covid patients hospitalized than a year ago, higher incidences and, despite this, much more normality. This is how the Pitiusas Islands are facing the beginning of the tourist season, according to the pandemic data extracted from the covid viewer of the Balearic Ministry of Health. The current epidemiological situation looks nothing like the uncertainty and fear that was experienced last year at this time, when there were still restrictions and the whole society of Ibiza and Formentera lived pending risk levels. And according to the Balearic infectious disease management committee, the vaccination rates would be key to “very slowly” easing covid infection control measures.
The percentage of fully vaccinated population currently registered in the Pitiusas is currently close to 90% (85% in Ibiza and 87.6% in Formentera), a figure much higher than the one that was counted on 8 April 2021: only 4.2% in Ibiza and 3.6% in Formentera. Doses arrived in dribs and drabs, and their administration was still limited to the older and more vulnerable population. One year and some 270,000 doses later, it is people who are trickling into the vaccination centres.
While a year ago everyone was waiting for de-escalation, now the next frontier to further halt the pandemic is to say goodbye to the indoor mask. Right now, it is unknown how many active cases of coronavirus there are on Ibiza and Formentera. They are not even counted. Only those affected by the virus who need hospital care are counted and registered.
Deaths due to covid
On Thursday, the last day that the Balearic Ministry of Health updated the data, there were 24 infected people admitted in the Pitiusas, three more than exactly one year ago. At that time, however, the condition of five of them was critical, so they remained in intensive care units, spaces that now have days free of covid.
At this point in the year, in 2021 covid had claimed 70 lives in the Pitiusas, a figure that in 2022 is 44, i.e. 37% less. In reality, the decrease in mortality would be much higher than this 37%, since the number of positives detected in these first months of the year (18,313) has been much higher than those confirmed in 2021 (7,547). That is, while last year at the same time one out of every 107 infected had died, in 2022 the deaths from coronavirus in the Pitiusas are one out of every 416. If last year the spring caught the Pitiusos coming out of the most lethal wave of the pandemic, this year coincides with the collapse of the wave with more contagions experienced so far.
The incidence, however, was lower, much lower, than that recorded at present. It should be remembered, however, that a year ago restrictions such as the use of masks both indoors and outdoors and restrictions on opening hours in bars and restaurants were still active. On April 8, 2021, Ibiza recorded 29.5 infections per hundred thousand inhabitants at two weeks and 13.5 at seven weeks, indicators well below those recorded now: 154.1 and 73.8. The situation is similar on Formentera, where the incidence at two weeks is now higher (109.2) than a year ago (82.6), although not so at one week (25.2 compared to 41.3 in 2021).
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