ARCHIVED - Spain and Portugal suffering the worst third waves of the pandemic in Europe

Incidence rates have levelled off or fallen in all other European countries since the New Year

In most of Europe the start of 2021 has heralded a gradual decrease in coronavirus incidence rates, with the upward curve of the second wave having been first flattened and then reversed since November or December, but according to data published this week Spain and Portugal are the only countries in which the new year has been marked by continuing and significant increases.

Measuring the severity of the current pandemic situation in terms of the number of cases reported per million inhabitants per day, the worst affected country in Europe at present is reported to be Portugal at 1,025, following a sharp increase since the end of last year. Second on the list are Sweden and Slovenia, but in the former the rate has dropped significantly in recent weeks and in the latter the figures have remained more or less stable since October, while Spain is ranked fourth with a rate of 733 after a dramatic increase over the course of the last three weeks.

Apart from the Iberian Peninsula the rest of the continent is reporting a gradual improvement in the success of measures to contain the pandemic, leaving Spain and Portugal as Europe’s current “hot spots”.

As for the current 14-day accumulated incidence rates, the latest data available from the ECDC (only updated to Thursday) is that infection is still higher than in Spain (804 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) in Ireland (1,444), the Czech Republic (1,362), Portugal (1,215) and the UK (1,039), than in other areas of Europe; Germany (319), Italy (374), France (380), Poland (305), Belgium (248)Denmark (364)Greece (79), Norway (148), Finland (61)but the downward trends visible in all of these countries bar Portugal could well leave Spain and its neighbour occupying the two top spots before long.

After another new daily record of confirmed cases in Spain was reported on Thursday at over 44,000, it is also indicative of the current situation that case numbers in more heavily populated countries were significantly lower: 33,454 in the UK, 23,895 in France, 12,233 in Germany and 10,496 in Italy.

On the other hand, Spain is at least able to point to a higher percentage of the population having received at least one dose of the vaccine than most of the other countries included in the comparative study, at 2.2 per cent. In terms of immunization the UK far outperforms all of Europe, having provided jabs to approximately 7.5 per cent of the population.

On Friday Portugal announced that it had accumulated more than 600,000 cases since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a threshold that has been exceeded on a day in which the Portuguese Directorate General of Health (DGS) has once again confirmed a historical maximum of deaths in a single day, with 234. The official balance includes 609,136 positives for coronavirus since the pandemic began, 13,987 more than on Thursday. The death toll now stands at 9,920, while the number of patients admitted to intensive care continues to grow (715), reports the RTP chain.

Spain reported a further 42,885 new cases and 400 deaths and its 14 day incidence rate increased to 828.