Date Published: 30/08/2021
ARCHIVED - Murcia Covid update August 30: Incidence rate drops below extreme risk
ARCHIVED ARTICLE Every pandemic indicator has decreased in the Region over the past seven days
The Region of Murcia has been experiencing a decline in cases throughout the month of August, but the positive evolution of the
coronavirus pandemic has accelerated sharply in the last week.
The cumulative incidence rate for the Region has plunged 71 points in the past 7 days to 249.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Monday, August 30 compared with 320 last week. This rate is the best indicator of how the pandemic is evolving and the positive trend has been reflected through much of Spain this week, with the average number of cases per 100,000 of population nationally now at 264.13 over a 14-day period. The Region of Murcia is now just under the “extreme risk” threshold of 250.
Only two towns in the Region, San Pedro del Pinatar and Jumilla exceed an incidence rate of 400, with the two biggest cities, Murcia and Cartagena, actually below the regional average at 233 and 218 cases per 100,000. Lorca is just slightly above the threshold at 264 (see 14-day rate below).
The regional health authorities registered 54 positive cases on Sunday, which is the lowest number of infections all week. The data over the weekend are usually skewed however, as far fewer tests are conducted on Sundays and so the number of infections appears much lower than on a weekday.
Of the total new cases, 11 correspond to the municipality of Cartagena, 11 to Murcia, 9 to Lorca, 3 to Alhama de Murcia, 3 to Molina de Segura, 2 to Águilas and 2 to Fuente Álamo. The remainder are distributed throughout the other municipalities in smaller quantities.
Image 2: New cases (top) and hospitalisations (below)
Hospital occupancy is also on the decline, albeit more slowly than the overall incidence rate, but experts hope that this too will improve in the coming weeks. Total admissions stood at 156 patients on Sunday, 20 fewer than the same day the previous week, of whom 32 are in the ICU, again two less than on Friday. It should be noted that of the intensive care patients (all aged between 18 and 77 years), 85 per cent have not been vaccinated against Covid.
Unfortunately, two more fatalities have been recorded in the Region within the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total death toll since the beginning of the pandemic to 1,681. The deceased are a woman and a man, aged 86 and 72, from the Caravaca de la Cruz and Lorca health areas.
Although the level of deaths is still too high, the weekly death toll has dropped from 17 to 13 across the past seven days, so indicates the same deceleration as tcan be seen in the number of new cases.
To date, 132,525 residents of the region have been given the all-clear after initially testing positive for the virus.
To date 136,460 coronavirus infections have been registered in the Murcia region, and there are currently only 2,254 active cases, a decrease of 35 per cent compared to the same day last week.
The positivity rate, which is another important indicator of how much the virus is circulating, has hovered between 5 and 7 per cent in the past few days, compared to 10 per cent the previous week, another indicator that the fifth wave is decelerating.
Image: Archive