ARCHIVED - 128 more deaths as the Covid incidence rate in Spain continues to rise
The risk of infection is categorized as extreme in Navarra, Madrid and the Basque Country
The latest coronavirus update issued on Tuesday evening by Spain’s Ministry of Health reports a further 6,623 confirmed cases across the country, raising the accumulated 14-day incidence rate to 164.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and continuing the upward trend which began shortly before Easter.
There are fears that this rising tendency could become more significant over the next ten days or so as the effects of increased socialization and travel during the Easter holidays become apparent, but already there are signs that in some parts of the country a fourth wave of contagion could be under way. In Navarra the incidence rate is as high as 363 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while the figures are also alarmingly high in Madrid (288), the Basque Country (273) and Catalunya (204), although at the other end of the scale the risk of infection is relatively low in the Comunidad Valenciana (with a rate of 32.6), the Balearics (63.8), Murcia (64.8) and Galicia (66.8).
At the same time, the situation in the country’s hospitals is worsening, with the proportion of hospital beds occupied by Covid patients having risen to 7.6 per cent. There are now 9,461 coronavirus patients receiving hospital treatment in Spain, almost 2,000 of them in intensive care units (accounting for just under 20 per cent of all ICU beds), and both figures have been rising steadily for over a week.
As ever, though, the worst news in the latest bulletin is the addition of another 128 deaths to the official Ministry toll since the pandemic first reached this country just over a year ago. That figure now stands at 75,911, although it is generally agreed that the “real” total is substantially higher due to many fatalities during the first wave of infection in patients who had not been tested for SARS-Cov-2.
Image: GVA; Mass vaccinations underway in the Valencia region