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The incidence rate in Andalucía has risen for the second day in a row, and is now higher than it was last Friday. Daily infections, too, have risen slightly in the last 24 hours, and overall are showing a very slow pace of descent.

 

Luckily, these numbers have not yet been accompanied by a rise in hospital admissions for coronavirus, and patient numbers on both general wards and in the ICU continue to drop.

 

 

Andalucía has a total of 2,736 new positive cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, down by 85 from yesterday and just 73 fewer than this time last week, which shows that the rate of infection is barely dropping.

 

The 2,736 infections are registered after 2,821 on Thursday, 2,649 on Wednesday, 1,512 on Tuesday, 5,278 on Monday (72 hours) and 2,809 last Friday.

 

In terms of provinces, Malaga once again tops the leaderboard convincingly with 929, followed by Cadiz with 495, Seville with 426, Huelva with 216, Córdoba with 177, Almería with 168, Jaén with 166 and Granada with 159.

 

 

According to data provided by the Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalucía (IECA), the 14-day cumulative incidence rate in the region stands at 269.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, four points more than yesterday and 61 more than this time last week. This may be down to a spike caused by the carnival celebrations across the region two weeks ago, as the incidence rate normally follows two weeks behind any jump in infections.

 

 

Hospitalisations, thankfully, haven’t seen a spike, and continue to drop steadily day by day. Andalucía registered a drop of 25 patients hospitalised by coronavirus on Friday compared to Thursday, down to a total of 617, while ICU admissions fell by three to 83 people, the lowest figure since December 8 (82).

 

The number of hospitalised patients fell by 25 on Friday after falling by 30 on Thursday, 18 on Wednesday, 38 on Tuesday, 36 on Monday (48 hours), 25 on Saturday and 31 last Friday, when there were 713 admitted.

 

In the case of ICU patients, they fell by three this Friday after falling by two on Thursday, two on Wednesday, rising by three on Tuesday, falling by three on Monday (48 hours), five on Saturday and four last Friday, when there were 95 people in intensive care units.

 

 

Sadly, a further 24 people died from coronavirus in the region in the last day, eight more than on Wednesday and six fewer than a week ago, when there were 30 deaths. This proves that the virus continues to be just as deadly as ever, and should not be underestimated even as restrictions begin to be eased.

 

Of the 24 deaths today, eight were recorded in the province of Jaén, eight in Seville, four in Málaga, and one each in Almería, Cádiz, Granada and Huelva.

 

 

Thanks to the increased emphasis on booster jabs, including fourth jabs for immunocompromised people, more than 70,000 people have received the full vaccination programme they are due in the last week alone. This takes the total number of people fully vaccinated in Andalucía to 7,307,742 (86.3% of the population over 5 years of age).

 

The rate of advance of first vaccinations for as-yet uninoculated people is much slower, with those who haven’t yet been jabbed reluctant to do so now as the danger is perceived to be passing. In the last week, just 7,000 more people have received their first shot, up to a total of 7,571,609 (89.4% of the population).

 

 

Image: Junta de Andalucía