ARCHIVED - New daily high in coronavirus case numbers in Spain with 41,000 more infections

The 14-day incidence rate has also reached unprecedented levels since the festive season

A fortnight has now passed since Three Kings Day signalled the end of the Christmas and New Year celebrations in Spain but the latest coronavirus data continue to reflect the rise in contagion caused by increased social activity during the festive season, and on Wednesday the daily bulletin issued by the Ministry of Health reported a record number of new confirmed cases in a single day.

Across the country a further 41,576 cases of Covid-19 have been officially reported, bringing the total since early last year to 2,412,318, while another 464 coronavirus-related fatalities took the Ministry’s cumulative death toll up to 54,637. At the same time, the accumulated 14-day incidence rate continues to rise to unprecedented levels and now stands at 736.23 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while in six of Spain’s 17 regions the figure is over 1,000: 1,425 in Extremadura, 1,189 in Murcia, 1,075 in the Comunidad Valenciana, 1,066 in Castilla-La Mancha, 1,047 in Castilla y León and 1,042 in La Rioja.

Only in the Canary Islands (180) is the incidence rate still below the threshold of 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, above which the situation is described as being of “extreme risk”.

Unfortunately there is no sign as yet of the pressure on Spain’s hospitals and health services easing, and the proportion of hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients has risen to 19.95 per cent. This equates to a total of 25,228 Covid patients currently receiving hospital treatment, among them 3,583 in intensive care units, where 35 per cent of beds are occupied on account of the disease.

In some regions the percentages are significantly higher than these national averages, reaching 55.3 per cent in intensive care units in the Comunidad Valenciana. However, the national government has once again ignored the pleas made by 15 of the 17 regional governments to be allowed to bring forward the start of the night-time curfew to 20.00 in an effort to bring infection rates down.

Meanwhile, the vaccination continues and the number doses administered of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine in Spain is now over a million, standing at 1,025,937. Second doses have been received by 15,642 people.