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Date Published: 31/08/2022

ARCHIVED - ICU occupancy dips to lowest level of entire pandemic: Spain Covid update August 31

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

There are now just 229 critical patients being treated in intensive care across Spain

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - ICU occupancy dips to lowest level of entire pandemic: Spain Covid update August 31

The days of the coronavirus pandemic in Spain are numbered, according to the Ministry of Health, as all data points to a huge improvement in the health situation as the country approaches autumn. The latest report published on August 30 indicates that daily infections and the incidence rate are continuing in their steady decline while hospital pressure, a vital factor as the weather changes and flu season looms, has dramatically reduced.

Even with this positive news, the World Health Organisation (WHO) still expects a slight up-tick in cases in the coming months, although it has ruled out a severe rebound due to the overall high vaccination rate. Nevertheless, the experts have warned that Covid continues to circulate “widely” and has caused 3,000 deaths in Europe in the last week alone, with the WHO predicting that Europe will reach 250 million cases before too long.

Coronavirus infections

The Ministry of Health registered 9,554 new cases of coronavirus on Monday August 30, of which 5,459 were diagnosed in people over the age of 60, similar numbers to those seen in the previous report on Friday.

The BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants continue to dominate in Spain, although thankfully no new sublineages of concern have been detected.

Cumulative incidence rate

The 14-day cumulative incidence rate in people over the age of 60 has fallen 8.9 points since the last report to stand at 153.05 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to the 161.99 cases registered on Friday.

Those over 80 years of age have the highest level of risk of contagion, with an incidence of 237.67 cases, followed by septuagenarians (160.42), while the lowest level of transmission recorded is that of those in their sixties (103.59). The incidence rate in all of these age groups has steadily declined in recent days.

Aragón continues to have the lowest incidence rate in Spain this week, with just 78.69 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Andalucia (97.87) and Catalonia (109.08).

Every region has now dropped well below the 400-case threshold.

Hospitalisations and fatalities

There are currently 3,421 patients admitted to hospitals throughout Spain (compared to 3,510 on Friday), which translates into a 2.9% occupancy rate but it is the intensive care data that stands out this week: just 229 critical patients are being treated in Spain’s ICUs, the lowest figure since the very beginning of the pandemic, representing an occupancy rate of 2.7%.

In the worst moments of the health crisis, more than 20% of intensive care beds were filled with Covid patients, with more than 2,000 patients being treated.

A further 146 Covid-related fatalities were reported in Tuesday’s update, bringing the overall death toll in Spain to 112,600 people.

Vaccination data

As of August 29, 92.8% of the population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated against Covid, which means that a total of 39,142,950 people have now received two doses.

So far, 39,257,229 have received at least one dose, 93.1% of the population over 12 years of age.

Image: Pixabay

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