Date Published: 12/01/2021
ARCHIVED - British variant not yet impacting in Spain; soaring Covid cases due to Christmas socialising
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
The government Health Emergencies director insists that increased socializing has caused the third wave of infection
The Director of Spain’s Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, Fernando Simón, stated on Monday that the increase in the number of new coronavirus cases being reported across the country is due not to the arrival of the new “British strain” (SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant) of Covid but to the behaviour of much of the population over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
On Monday he reported the worst weekend figures recorded since the pandemic began, with over 61,000 new cases detected in Spain between Friday evening and Monday evening.
So far approximately 70 cases of the British strain have been confirmed in Spain and Sr Simón reports that the figure is likely to rise to a few hundred when the results of investigation into other “possibles” become known. On the other hand, though, he is adamant that “the problem is not the British strain, it is our behaviour”: the way to control any strain of Covid, he explains, be it British, Spanish or South African, is to apply the correct control measures in order to reduce contagion.
While recognizing that the so-called British strain is more easily transmitted, the epidemiologist insists that what Spain must do is to apply such measures and not to imagine that the new strain is responsible for the rise in case numbers which is now being observed: we all know what those measures are, he adds, and we all know how to apply them.
Sr Simón also explains that it is to be expected that the British strain should reach Spain due to the high level of contact between the two countries, with large numbers of Spaniards living in the UK and of British nationals residing in this country. In this context it is unsurprising that most of the cases have been reported in areas where there are more travellers between Spain and Britain, such as Andalucía, Catalunya, Madrid and the eastern Mediterranean coastline.
Detailed analysis of the strain of coronavirus involved is carried out on between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent of patients in Spain, as a result of which Fernando Simón considers that it is highly probable that the presence of the “British strain” in the different regions would be detected were it more widespread.
At the Monday press conference, the Murcian authorities confirmed that only one case has been detected so far in the Murcia Region, although other cases are being studied as potential contacts of the first.
Image: Health staff being vaccinated this week