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Date Published: 30/06/2022

ARCHIVED - Omicron subvariants push infections up 50 per cent: Murcia Covid update June 30

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The increase in Covid cases in the Murcia Region has not yet translated into more hospitalisations

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Omicron subvariants push infections up 50 per cent: Murcia Covid update June 30

After a barrage of infections throughout the winter and spring, the Region of Murcia and the rest of Spain expected to sail into the summer with the coronavirus pandemic well contained. However, the emergence of several new Omicron subvariants has changed the outlook somewhat and cases are skyrocketing once more, to the point that the incidence rate in the Region has increased by 50% in people over the age of 60 in the last week alone.

According to the most recent update from the regional health authorities on Wednesday June 29, the 14-day cumulative incidence has now reached 669 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, creeping very close to the Spanish national average of 841 cases. Even though this is an unwelcome rise, it’s worth noting that seven communities (Madrid, La Rioja, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Galicia) have exceeded the 1,000-case mark so Murcia’s infection rate is by no means close to the top.

Since last Wednesday, the Region has added 1,837 new infections but only one new Covid-related death. This rapid increase in infections is not currently translating into an increase in hospitalisations, however.

There are currently 198 infected patients hospitalised in Murcia, six fewer than on the same day last week, while ICU admissions have rebounded slightly, with the number of people being treated for more serious conditions rising from seven to nine.

Many health experts believe that Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 lineages are behind this incipient new wave and these strains are quickly becoming dominant. At the beginning of June, both subvariants represented just 25.9% of all Covid cases registered in the Murcia Region but today, they account for 53.7%.

BA.4 and BA.5 are thus displacing BA.2, which has gone from representing 65.5% of cases to just 43.6% of infections.

The good news is that Omicron is far less virulent than earlier strains and this, together with a high level of vaccination, means that an increase in infections hasn’t bumped up hospital numbers too much.

However, the Spanish Society of Emergency and Emergency Medicine (Semes) warned yesterday that the Emergency services throughout Spain are already “saturated” due to an increase in the demand for care that is partly related to the seventh wave of the Covid. In the Region of Murcia, the influx of patients has increased "between 25% and 30%" since March, according to Pascual Piñera, vice president of Semes and head of the Reina Sofía Hospital Emergency Department.

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