Cristina Hodgson
THE whole of Malaga has been given the green light to transition into Alert Level 1, the lowest health alert level.
Following a meeting by the territorial committee of High Impact Public Health Alerts yesterday afternoon to analyse the epidemiological situation of each municipality, all health districts in Malaga province have been approved to drop down into a lower-risk level.
Alert level 1 is the lowest level established by the Ministry of Health and the regions to mark the epidemiological risk of an area, with New Normality being level: 0.
The transition to a lower alert level sees a further easing of COVID-19 measures, especially with regard to the capacity of events and premises.
As of midnight today, following the publication in the Official Gazette of the Andalucian Regional Government (BOJA), the hospitality sector will be permitted to have 100% capacity on terraces and 75% indoors, with a maximum of eight people per table indoors, and ten people outdoors.
Furthermore, outdoor dance floor spaces can be reopened, with masks and until 2am.
There will also be no restrictions at this level on beaches and swimming pools, as long as the social distancing between groups can be maintained.
The thresholds that mark the COVID-19 risk levels, applied in all the Autonomous Regions, take into account the following six indicators:
- Overall 14-day and the seven-day cumulative incidence per 100,000 people.
- The above two indicators applied exclusively to the 65-and-over population.
- The positivity rate (amount of tests that come back positive out of the total).
- The percentage of cases that can be traced back to the source of infection.
- Inpatient bed occupancy rate for COVID-19.
- Intensive care beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Criteria for Alert Level 1
In order to calculate the alert level, the above indicators are used with the fundamental three being:
- Overall 14-day cumulative incidence: 14-day cumulative incidence is one of the most important indicators when measuring the level of virus transmission. The definition of the alert level is defined by the rate of cases per 100,000 population. If the value is between 25 and 50, as defined by the Ministry of Health, the municipality in question is at level 1.
- Overall positivity of diagnostic tests per week: Overall positive cases diagnosed in the last week is another of the most relevant indicators taken into account by epidemiologists to gauge the degree of spread of the virus. Alert Level 1 is defined by a percentage of this value between 4% and 7%.
- Inpatients and ICU: Inpatient bed occupancy rate for COVID-19. Level 1 is defined as a percentage below 5% in general wards and 10% in the case of ICU.
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