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Date Published: 14/03/2023

ARCHIVED - Three years on from the first confinement: Spain Covid update March 14

ARCHIVED ARTICLE -

The first state of alarm and coronavirus lockdown were announced in Spain in March 2020

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Three years on from the first confinement: Spain Covid update March 14

It’s hard to believe but this Tuesday March 14 marks the third anniversary since President Pedro Sanchez took to the airwaves and announced that a state of alarm had been issued for all of Spain and the country was going into confinement. Covid-19 was a little known entity all those months ago, an exotic disease that many believed wouldn’t concern itself with Europe.

Fast-forward three years and not a life has been left untouched by the pandemic which still claims an average of 15 lives per day in Spain. And after a particularly harsh double flu season this year, the impact of coronavirus continues to fluctuate, with the number of daily infections and that all-important cumulative incidence rate creeping up again this week.

Despite another slight increase in most of the indicators this week, the experts from the Public Health Commission are satisfied that the health situation remains stable in Spain. For this reason, they’ve decided to update the figures on vaccinations monthly from now on, rather than weekly.

Coronavirus infections

The Ministry of Health registered an additional 7,977 cases of coronavirus on Friday March 10, a significant increase on the 7,093 infections reported on the same day last week. Of these, 4,922 positives were diagnosed in people over the age of 60.

This brings the total number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic to 13,778,467.

Cumulative incidence rate

After dropping consistently for weeks after Christmas, the cumulative incidence rate has begun creeping up again week after week. There’s been a five point upswing in the 14-day cumulative rate since the last report, which has risen from 58.79 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 63.64.

In addition, the 7-day figure, standing at 32.39, is now more than 50% of the two-week rate, a strong indication that the health situation could continue to worsen.

When it comes to autonomous communities, the Region of Murcia this week has the lowest incidence rate of just 26.74 cases per 100,000, while Andalucia has dropped to third place with a figure of 29.25.

Castilla y Leon is currently faring the worst, with 129.27 infections per 100,000 people while the Valencian Community is lower than the national average, with 43.36 cases, although it has climbed another three points this week.

The highest incidence continues to be recorded in people over the age of 80, with a rate of 128.85 cases this week, followed by those aged between 70 and 79 (56.95) and between 60 and 69 (35.32).

Fatalities and hospitalisations

A further 61 Covid-related fatalities have been reported in the last 7 days, bringing the total number of deaths in Spain up to 119,618.

There are currently 2,006 patients hospitalised for Covid throughout Spain, up considerably from 1,827 last week, while 94 are being treated for more serious conditions in the country’s ICUs – an increase of 10.

This means that 1.6% of all hospital beds are occupied by coronavirus patients (up from 1.46%) while the occupancy rate in intensive care has risen from 0.95% a week ago to 1.07% today.

Vaccination data

As of March 14, 92.6% of the population over 12 (39,208,623 people) are double jabbed. In addition, 39,285,625 people over the age of 12, or 92.8% of the population, have received at least one dose.

Some 76.1% of people over the age of 80 have also received the second booster dose, according to the latest report.

Read more: How to book a vaccination appointment to get your Covid jab

Image: Pexels

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