ARCHIVED - Slight fall in Spanish Covid rate but hospital pressure increases; update August 2

The number of fatalities has also increased over the weekend

The latest data published by the Spanish Health Authority covering the weekend of July 31 and August 1 was published on Monday (August 2) and shows that the rate of covid cases detected in Spain is falling, albeit very slowly, although the pressure on the health service is increasing again, with hospitalisations continuing to rise and the death rate higher than for some weeks.

The accumulated incidence per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days is now 673 cases; 14 points lower than last Friday.

According to María José Sierra, Head of the Health Alerts and Emergencies Coordination Center (CCAES), this appears to indicate that Spain is starting to reaching a level of stabilization, "but this does not mean that the situation is good, as the rate of decrease is still very slow."

When Spain left the last state of alarm the rate had dropped below 100, so has increased sevenfold in the last few weeks.

Although the rate is visibly starting to stall in the worst-affected Autonomous regions, seven remain above the 700 mark; Aragón (776), Balearic Islands (936), Cantabria (649), Catalonia (845), Madrid (753), Navarra (825 ), The Basque Country (754) and La Rioja (776), even the regions with the lowest rates , namely Murcia (474), Asturias (490) and the Canary Islands (498) are close to 500, considered to be “extreme risk”.

Image: Covid cases reported in Spain from December 1, 2020 to August 1, 2020

The number of new cases of coronavirus notified over the weekend is 55,939, compared to the 61,625 registered last Monday, which brings the total number of people infected to date to 4,502,983 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Sierra indicated that the Delta variant now accounts for "over 75 percent" of the new cases detected in Spain, although in some regions of the country the rate is above 85 percent, and the variant is now the dominaant variant in Spain.

Although the majority of the newly reported cases continue to be in teenagers and young adults who have not been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, as vaccination reaches more and more people in their 20s and 30s the differences are becoming less marked. However, it is noticeable that although the rate is dropping in the younger age groups, it is rising in the older age groups. The Monday breakdown of incidence rates by age groups is as follows:

Age 0-11: 586 (up by 31 points from Friday)
Age 12-19: 1,516 (down by 79 points)
Age 20-29: 1,626 (down by 146 points)
Age 30-39: 818 (down 54 points)
Age 40-49: 448 (down 8 points)
Age 50-59: 344 (up 14 points)
Age 60-69: 335 (up 5 points)
Age 70-79: 221 (up 24 points)
Age 80+: 272 (up 26 points)

Hospitalisations: Although the number of cases may be easing off slightly, the principal concern for the health authorities is the level of hospitalisations, and these figures are continuing to rise, albeit at a slower rate than last week.

There are currently 10,578 patients admitted for Covid-19 throughout Spain, of which 1,856 are in ICU intensive care units. Within the last 24 hours there have been 1,216 admissions and 619 discharges, which maintains hospital pressure at more than 20% and gives an occupancy rate of 9% in ICU units.

Fatalities: This Monday, 157 deaths with covid have been reported since Friday, 207 in the last week, a rebound compared to the 47 deaths reported last Monday. This brings the official global death toll from coronavirus in Spain to 81,643 people(bear in mind that in the first wave more than 20,000 care home deaths were attributed to covid but were NOT included in these official figures due to lack of availability of PCR tests).

Vaccinations:
The vaccination roll-out continues steadily and there are now more than 27 million people fully vaccinated in Spain.

Between them, the 17 autonomous regions have administered a total of 56,795,869 vaccines, 609,268 of them during the weekend.

A total of 27,262,062 people are now fully vaccinated, 328,215 within the latest 24-hour period, representing 57.5 percent of the Spanish population.

A total of 32,169,472 people have received at least one dose, 67.8 percent of the population.