ARCHIVED - Covid milestones reached in Spain: 20 per cent fully vaccinated but the death toll hits 80,000

The incidence rate continues to fall gradually in the Spain as a whole

Despite the general optimism regarding the developments of the coronavirus pandemic in Spain the latest Ministry of Health update published on Wednesday evening included a sobering reminder of the scale of the crisis over the last 15 months, as the official government Covid death toll passed 80,000.

A further 66 fatalities were reported, taking the total since the first death last February to 80,049, underlining the fact that in spite of the positive news of late regarding the key pandemic indicators the pandemic is still far from over.

On the other hand, the indicators continued to improve across the country in general terms, with the 14-day accumulated incidence rate falling another couple of points to 118.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The lowest figures are still in the Comunidad Valenciana (35.8) and the Balearics (38.75) while at the other end of the scale are the Basque Country (199) and La Rioja (186): these last two are among six regions still in “high risk” territory, the others being Madrid, Aragón, the north African enclave of Melilla and Andalucía.

At the same time, the number of Covid patients receiving hospital treatment continues to fall, now accounting for only 3.6 per cent of occupied hospital beds, while the equivalent figure in intensive care units stands at 12.85 per cent although it is still above 25 per cent in the regions of Madrid (26.8%) and La Rioja: in the Comunidad Valenciana, Galicia and Extremadura this indicator is below 3 per cent.

But it is the death toll which grabs the headlines as a result of the latest update, with a fatality rate in Spain due to Covid of 170 people per 100,000 inhabitants since the pandemic began, according to John Hopkins University. This is lower than the figures reported for Hungary (305), Italy (209), the UK (192) and the USA (181) but considerably higher than those in countries such as Germany (107) and the Netherlands (103), and the rates in the regions of Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha are among the highest in Europe.

VACCINATION UPDATE

Nonetheless, the vaccination campaign provides undeniable grounds for optimism, with more than one in five people in Spain now fully immunized against Covid-19. A further 487,514 doses of Covid vaccine were administered to the population of Spain on Monday, taking the total up to over 27.6 million since the first jabs in late December.

People to have received at least one dose: 18,426,204 (38.8 per cent of the population)

People fully vaccinated: 9,679,187 (20.4 per cent)

Among the population aged over 60, the proportion of people to have received at least one dose has risen to 95.3 per cent, while well over half (61.2 per cent) have completed the immunization process.

There are still noticeable variations among the speeds of vaccination in Spain’s 17 regions: for example, in Asturias the proportion of over-16s to have received at least one dose has risen to 55.5 per cent, while in the Balearics the equivalent figure stands at 39.4 per cent.

In terms of those who have received the full immunization treatment, the percentages range from 16.6 per cent in the Balearics to 31.9 per cent in Castilla y León.