Date Published: 25/03/2021
ARCHIVED - Covid incidence rate in Spain rises by 2 per cent in a day: update 24th March 2021
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Case numbers rose on Wednesday in 15 of the 17 regions of Spain
It is becoming clearer and clearer that the decline of the third wave of coronavirus infection in Spain has now ended and that the risk of a fourth wave is growing, with the latest daily update published by the Ministry of Health reporting a 2 per cent rise in the nationwide incidence rate over the last 24 hours.
The 14-day accumulated incidence rate now stands at 132.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and has been rising gradually for the last week, the data made public on Wednesday evening also showing that the figures rose in 15 of the country’s 17 regions. Only Andalucía (-0.6 per cent) and Aragón (-1.3 per cent) were exempt from the general trend, with the sharpest rises reported in Navarra (11.3 per cent), the Balearics (where a 9.5 per cent rise took the islands out of the “low risk” zone) and La Rioja (8.9 per cent).
The highest incidence rates among the regions are those reported in Madrid (228), the Basque Country (199.5) and Navarra (185.3), although in the north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla the data are even more worrying with figures of 254 and 511 respectively.
At the same time, the total of 7,026 cases reported on Wednesday is the highest for a single day so far this month, while the addition of 320 fatalities takes the official Covid death toll in Spain to 74,064 since the first wave of the pandemic early last year.
It goes without saying that the country is hardly prepared for another wave of infection of the magnitude of the surge in January, with hospitals still struggling to cope with the large numbers of coronavirus patients in long-term intensive care. The proportion of all hospital beds occupied by Covid patients has dropped to 6.24 per cent, according to the latest data, but in intensive care units coronavirus still accounts for 18.6 per cent of all patients and in Madrid, La Rioja and Catalunya the figure is well above 30 per cent.
On Wednesday evening the health authorities of the country voted to maintain the current restrictions in place for Semana Santa and intensify the roadblocks attempting to prevent inter-regional travel, hoping that the public understands the high probability of a fourth wave should they fail to respect the restrictions imposed, which aim to give a good deal of freedom and enable businesses to remain open.