Date Published: 13/04/2021
ARCHIVED - Incidence rates up by 9 per cent over the weekend as a fourth wave of the pandemic hits Spain
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
197 more fatalities take the official coronavirus death toll to 76,525 in Spain
The suspicion that increased socializing and travel over the Easter holidays could contribute to another increase in the coronavirus infection rate throughout Spain appears to have been well grounded, judging by the latest pandemic update published by the Ministry of Health on Monday evening.
The figures show that over the weekend - a week after the holiday period ended in most of Spain - a further 22,744 cases were confirmed, more than twice the number the weekend before, and that the 14-day accumulated incidence rate rose from 182 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Friday to 199 at the start of this week. After a jump of 9.3 per cent this is the highest figure reported since 26th February, and although the recent acceleration in the immunization campaign has led to more people being vaccinated than in previous surges in contagion it is considered probable that the fourth wave of the Covid pandemic will worsen before the data begin to improve.
Over the weekend incidence rates rose in all but 2 of the 17 regions of the country – by over 10 per cent in Andalucía, Catalunya, Cantabria and Castilla-La Mancha - and as a result the threshold of 250, which marks “extreme risk” of infection, is exceeded in Madrid, the Basque Country and Navarra, as well as the north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The risk is “very high” in 10 more regions, and only in the Comunidad Valenciana (36) is the risk categorized as being “low”.
The only decreases over the weekend were observed in Murcia (68) and the Balearics (57).
The overall upward trend in case numbers appears for the time being to be a less dramatic one than in previous waves of infection, but the situation in Spain’s hospitals is especially worrying. Already the proportion of hospital beds occupied by Covid patients has risen to 8.2 per cent, while in intensive care units the equivalent figure is 21.57 per cent in the country as a whole and approximately 40 per cent in La Rioja, Madrid and Catalunya. The number of hospital patients rose over the weekend by a further 887 to 10,246, while an increase of 113 was reported as the total of those in ICUs reached 2,163.
Few of these indicators are encouraging, but as ever the worst aspect of the latest bulletin concerns fatalities, with a further 197 reported over the weekend to bring the official Ministry toll since the start of the pandemic to 76,525.
Image: Ayto-Elche with the vaccination campaign underway