ARCHIVED - 1683 new cases in Spain on Thursday 6th, cases increase by 4,088

The total number of cases has risen by 24,425 during the last 7 day period

Image1: A new initiative from Barcelona council in which the "Barcelona Civic Guard" patrol the streets of the city in an educational róle, encouraging the public to comply with mask-wearing rules

The row over when is a wave, a wave, continues

The number of new covid infections is still high in Spain on Thursday 6th August according to the latest daily figures presented, although slightly lower than the number registered yesterday.

In the last 24 hours, 1,683 new cases have been diagnosed, compared to 1,772 on Wednesday.

This brings the total number of cases reported by the Spanish Ministry of Health to 309,855.

Herein lies the point which causes the greatest confusion when discussing the rate of increase of Covid-19 in Spain, as yesterday the official total given by the government was 305,767, so the difference between the two days is actually 4,088.

The figures given daily are those cases actively diagnosed day by day, whereas the overall total represents the figures as they are verified and added into the national system on an ongoing basis; many cases are reported to the national system without being accompanied by verified data; this is checked and added in on an ongoing basis so feeds into the system over a period of days.

If that same principle is applied for the last 7 days, from Thursday to Thursday for example, the figures are 285,430 to 309,855, a weekly increase of 24,425 cases.

(Column 1 shows the region, column 2 the total number of cases to date and column 3 the number of cases diagnosed within the last 24 hours)
The largest number of new cases was Aragón with 329, but the situation in the Basque Country is rapidly deteriorating and with 322 new infections it moves into second place.

The pandemic is hitting hard in the Basque Country, where a spike in infections is being registered with figures that have not been seen since April 28th, when 392 cases were recorded. The Basque Health Service is particularly concerned about the level of infections in large cities such as Bilbao, which repòrted 126 new cases; Barakaldo (28) and Vitoria (38) due to the great mobility of their residents, many of whom work in sectors which require travel from place of residence.

The Basque Minister of Health, Nekane Murga, clashed with Fernando Simón, who has consistently been the “face of the Covid crisis” for the Spanish Health Ministry throughout the crisis by warning the Basque population that the high rate of infections represented a second epidemic wave of the virus and "that a new normal is not possible."

A clear picture of the evolution of the number of new cases daily in Spain, with a large wave during lockdown, a deep trough as the country worked through de-escalation and then the rising number of cases following the conclusion of the state of emergency. Is it a second wave? Not according to the Ministry of Health.

Simón denied this, saying: "I have a different perception, 81% of the cases in the Basque Country are asymptomatic," Simón told the media. "Qualifying it as a second wave has a technical component, it requires an uncontrolled community transmission," he added, while also reporting that there are currently 580 coronavirus outbreaks in Spain, representing 6,900 cases.

He has consistently denied in the last few days that the current rise in cases is a “second wave”, although the media are increasingly querying this stance and highlighting the significant rise in case numbers. When does a wave become a wave they are asking increasingly.

UK figures for Thursday
New cases on Thursday 950, bringing the total to 308,134
Deaths on Thursday 49, bringing the fatalities total to 46,413