The Ministry of Health for the Canary Islands reported that as of today there are now 31 cases of H1N1 in the islands.

The province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has seen 18 of these cases most of which have fully recovered and only four which were admitted to hospital. Of these one has already been released and the others are all doing well.

PREPARATIONS BEFORE THE PANDEMIC

The Ministry of Health went on to state that the health authorites are keeping an ever closer eye on the situation and focussing efforts on the mitigation of the effects on influenza in patients before going on to add that the health system in Spain and therefore the Canary Islands are ready to handle this phase of the pandemic.

The Ministry of Health committed to supply an update on the development of the pandemic and government policies every Monday or more often should that become necessary.

I came across a word I didn’t know today. Nothing surprising in that, I do it all the time. In Spanish it is more of an event when I come across a word I do know. But this is a word I should know and that should be part of the lexicon of anyone who is regularly online in Tenerife and interested in improving their Spanish speaking skills.  Surprisingly I have never seen it before (in this context) and neither has my 40,000 entry Español-Inglés dictionary.

The word is bitácoras and it means blogs. If you are living in Tenerife and trying to pick up a bit of Spanish, scanning Spanish blogs is a great way to do that. Just as in English you will find a blog for every interest so too there are countless Canarian blogs covering every conceivable subject from birdwatching to bizarre events on the islands to lifestyle and trends.  Finding one in a niche that interests you is a good way to build up vocabulary and contacts in that subject.