Date Published: 09/03/2021
ARCHIVED - Weekend confirmed Covid cases in Spain drop to 7-month low: update 9th March 2021
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Incidence rates still falling but the downward curve is flattening out
The latest official coronavirus update published on Monday 8th March by Spain’s Ministry of Health provides further evidence that the third wave of contagion which swept the country in the first few weeks of the year can at last be said to have come to an end, while at the same time reinforcing the feeling that it will be some time yet before incidence rates reach levels considered to be of “low risk” in all areas.
The most recent data show that a further 11,958 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed over the weekend, the lowest weekend figure since August last year, bringing the 14-day incidence rate down to an average of 142 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Among the 17 regions of the country Extremadura remains the only one where the risk is categorized as “low”, with a rate of 42.4, while in six others (Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia, La Rioja, the Comunidad Valenciana and the Balearics) the figure is under 100 and in the remainder the rate is under 250.
Only in Madrid, Asturias, the Basque Country, Catalunya and Aragón is the risk of infection still considered high, with rates of between 150 and 250, although the situation remains “extreme” in the north African enclaves of Melilla (414) and Ceuta (291).
At the same time, the pressure on hospitals continues to ease gradually as the proportion of beds occupied by Covid patients drops to 7.8 per cent, although the figure of 24.3 per cent in intensive care units remains worryingly high as patients are spending longer in ICUs, perhaps due to more young adults having been infected during the third wave.
As ever, the worst news contained in the latest bulletin concerns fatalities, with another 298 deaths pushing the official toll since the pandemic reached Spain up to 71,436 (although the “real” figure is probably close to 100,000 due to insufficient testing resources having been available during the first wave last spring).
With promises abounding of an increase in the rate of vaccination within the next few weeks there are causes for a certain degree of optimism, but at the same time caution is needed as experts forecast that further significant decreases in infection rates are unlikely for the time being. There may even be a bounce-back as pandemic restrictions are relaxed all over the country, although the hope is that if this does occur it will be less dramatic than the spikes seen in the first waves of Covid.