Date Published: 17/08/2021
ARCHIVED - August 16 Covid update Spain: incidence rate drops again but 125 more lives lost
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Hospital patient numbers stable as Spain still suffers the effects of the fifth wave of contagion
The latest daily coronavirus update published by Spain’s Ministry of Health on Monday evening reports a continuation of the steady decrease in the national 14-day incidence rate, with the confirmation of 25,726 new cases over the weekend leaving the figure at 416 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This represents a drop of around 40 per cent since the peak of the fifth wave of contagion was reached in late July.
Furthermore, the 7-day rate is again under half the 14-day figure at 168, indicating that there will most likely be further decreases over the next few days.
It must be stressed, though, that Spain has not by any means “beaten” the pandemic, and although the rate in the region of Asturias is now below the “extreme risk” threshold of 250 (at 225) nowhere else in the country has this yet been achieved. The regions closest to joining Asturias are the Canaries (328) and the Comunidad Valenciana (353), but at the other end of the scale are the Balearics (541), La Rioja (499) and Navarra (484).
It continues to be the case that the differences among the regions are narrowing while the rates dropped over the weekend in all 17 except Castilla y León, and at the same time rates within different age groups are gradually becoming more uniform. The breakdown by age group as published on Monday evening is as follows:
Age 0-11: 427
Age 12-19: 877
Age 20-29: 805
Age 30-39: 433
Age 40-49: 301
Age 50-59: 269
Age 60-69: 232
Age 70-79: 196
Age 80+: 264
Hospital patients and fatalities
But while case numbers show a downward trend, the effects of the fifth wave of contagion are still being felt in hospitals over Spain and during the weekend the number of Covid patients admitted for treatment remained almost the same at 9,356, accounting for 7.97 per cent of all occupied beds. Similarly, the number of Covid patients in intensive care remained steady at 1,931, accounting for almost 21 per cent of available beds, and in Catalunya the proportion in ICUs is still alarmingly high at 43.8 per cent.
Unfortunately, another 125 Covid-related deaths were reported over the weekend, taking the official Ministry toll since the pandemic reached Spain to 82,595.
Vaccination data
Following the administration of almost exactly half a million doses during the weekend, the number of people in Spain who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus has reached 29,794,008, equivalent to 62.8 per cent of the population.
34,716,227 people have received at least one vaccine dose, equivalent to 73.2 per cent of the population.
Many of those now being vaccinated are in the age groups with highest incidence rates, and among Spanish teenagers as many as 31.7 per cent have already received their first vaccine dose. However, due to the campaign having only just reached this sector of the population just 7.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.
In the 20-29 age group the equivalent proportions are 67.1 per cent with at least one dose and 43.6 per cent fully vaccinated.
Image: @AsturSalud