12 fatalities but Murcia region drops below 2,000 active cases for first time since August

The number of new cases has dropped by a further 40 per cent this week

Image 1: Vaccination of the elderly taking place in the Palacio de los Deportes in Murcia city where over 600 elderly were given their first vaccination today; visit by the regional president, Fernando López Miras

What has been a very positive week for the development of the coronavirus crisis in the Region of Murcia concluded on Friday with the number of active cases falling back to levels last seen in August last year, concluding the week with just 1,865 active cases.

The decline in the number of new cases has been nothing short of spectacular since the middle of January when the total peaked at over 15,000, since when the restrictive measures of closing all hostelry businesses and restricting movement between municipalities have delivered these positive results and sharp decrease in the number of new and active cases.

Data at a glance as reported on Friday:
New positive cases reported in the last 24 hours: 120
Confirmed cases since the beginning of the outbreak; 104,745
Total number of active cases: 1,865
Patients in home isolation with mild symptoms: 1,458
Total number of hospitalisations: 407
Total number in ICU intensive care units : 112
Total cured: 101,489
Total deaths: 1,391
Testing: total of 884,500 PCR and antigen tests and 98,189 serological tests to date

On Friday, just 120 new cases were diagnosed from the 2,702 PCR or antigen tests, yielding a positivity rate of 4.4%.

Of the 120 new cases, 32 correspond to the municipality of Murcia, 22 to Lorca, 19 to Cieza, nine to Cartagena, four to Librilla, four to Torre Pacheco, three to Archena, three to Jumilla, three to San Pedro del Pinatar, three to Santomera and three to Las Torres de Cotillas, with the remainder distributed amongst other municipalities in smaller quantities.

Hospitalisations: The reduction in the total number of patients in the region’s hospitals continues its slow downward movement, falling from 424 to 407 admissions within the last 24 hours. The number of patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU) has increased by 2 patients to 112.

Fatalities: Unfortunately, this is one set of figures which is proving stubbornly difficult to reduce given the high number of critically ill patients in the intensive care units and within the last 24 hour period the region has reported 12 further Covid-related fatalities. The eight women and four men were aged 82, 71, 82, 75, 75, 66, 63, 61, 86, 84, 82 and 73; five were from Murcia city and the remainder from Las Torres de Cotillas, Fortuna, Lorca, Caravaca, Mazarrón, La Unión and Cieza.

AI Rate:The week concluded with an accumulated incidence rate of just 71 over the last 7 days and 193 over the last 14 days, a considerable drop on the figures reported a month ago.

Whereas a month ago Murcia had one of the worst rates in Spain, it now has one of the lowest rates in the country.

Only two municipalities have a 14 day rate over 500; Ulea and Librilla, the remainder reporting figures comfortably below this level.