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Date Published: 26/09/2022

ARCHIVED - Covid incidence jumps 6 points: Spain pandemic update September 26

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

On a positive note, hospitalisations across Spain have dropped by more than 11% in the last week

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Covid incidence jumps 6 points: Spain pandemic update September 26

Monday September 26 marks the beginning of a new coronavirus vaccine campaign in Spain, when the fourth dose will be offered to the most vulnerable groups. The drive, however, is overshadowed somewhat by a significant increase in the 14-day incidence rate, and the fact that this number has crept up in all age brackets over 60.

However, the good news is that hospital numbers have fallen in the past week in all but one autonomous community in Spain, and ICU occupancy has also taken a dip.

Coronavirus infections

The Ministry of Health has registered 10,306 new coronavirus infections in Spain on Friday September 23, which is a significant upswing compared to the 8,320 cases reported last Monday.

This brings the total number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic to 13,403,502.

Cumulative incidence rate

Most worrying is the 14-day cumulative incidence rate in people over the age of 60. After hovering around the 130-case mark for more than a week, it has jumped several notches to land at 136.26 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This is by no means an alarming number, but it is certainly moving back in the wrong direction.

The 7-day incidence rate in citizens aged 60 or over has also experienced another increase, rising from 64.48 cases to 67.92.

Those over 80 years of age have the highest level of risk of contagion, with an incidence of 196.10 cases, followed by septuagenarians (148.70), while the lowest level of transmission recorded is that of those in their sixties (96.04). All of these age groups have, unfortunately, noted an increase since the last report.

Looking at the incidence by autonomous community, the enclave of Ceuta continues to make great headway, dropping from 13.18 cases per 100,000 last Monday to just 6.59 on Friday.

It’s followed by Navarra, although there has has been an increase here, from 68.15 cases to 73.35. A similar situation can be seen in Andalucia, where the infections have jumped from 65.38 to 73.92.

The Canary Islands, Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha have the highest rates in the country, but none exceed 250, which means that all of Spain is in a state of controlled circulation.

Hospitalisations and fatalities

Despite the rising cases, there has been an improvement in hospital `pressure over the past few days. There are currently 2,209 patients admitted to hospitals throughout Spain, (246 fewer than the same day last week) while 129 people are being treated for more serious conditions in the country’s ICUs (a reduction of 17 since the last update).

These data mean that 1.86% of all hospital beds are occupied by Covid patients (down from 2.09% on the same day last week) while the occupancy rate in intensive care has dropped to 1.52% from 1.84%.

In all, intensive care occupation has decreased by 11.6% in the last week, with only the Basque Country reporting an increase.

The regions with the most patients hospitalised are Madrid (321), the Valencian Community (242) and Andalucia (211).

A further 72 Covid-related fatalities were reported in Friday’s update, bringing the overall death toll in Spain to 114,009 people.

Vaccination data

As of September 26, 92.8% of the population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated against Covid, which means that a total of 39,154,017 people have now received two doses.

In addition, 39,265,958 people (93.1%) have had at least one dose.

Image: Ministerio de Sanidad

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