ARCHIVED - Another slight drop in the Covid incidence rate in Spain and 88 more fatalities: Covid update April 28
7 regions still at “extreme risk” as the end of the state of emergency approaches
The end is nearing of the national state of emergency declared in Spain in order to enforce anti-coronavirus measures, meaning that as of 9th May the powers of regional governments to restrict travel will be limited, and while the incidence rate of Covid-19 again dropped slightly in the data published on Wednesday it appears that the state of the pandemic will be vastly different from region to region when the next phase begins in 10 days’ time.
The data released by the MInistry of Health on Wednesday evening show another slight drop in the 14-day incidence rate to 230.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, but the figures are still above the “extreme risk” threshold of 250 in 7 of the 17 regions, namely the Basque Country (485), Madrid (393), Navarra (355), Cataluña (288.5), La Rioja (280), Aragón (276) and Cantabria (250). The 8,865 new cases confirmed during the previous 24 hours take the total since the pandemic reached Spain to just over 3.5 million, and do not include figures from the Basque Country, where the previous day was a regional holiday.
Another 88 Covid-related fatalities were recorded, taking the total since early last year to 77,943, and in many regions the strain being placed on health services remains extreme: in the country as a whole the proportion of beds in intensive care units occupied by Covid patients is 23 per cent, but in Madrid the equivalent figure rises to 43.8 per cent and in both the Basque Country and La Rioja it is only just under 40 per cent.
At the other end of the scale, meanwhile, the Comunidad Valenciana remains alone in “low risk” territory with a 14-day rate of 44, while Murcia, Galicia and the Balearics all continue to record figures of under 100. Similarly, in the Comunidad Valenciana only 2.06 per cent of hospital beds are occupied by Covid patients, and in the ICUs of Murcia the proportion is just 3.8 per cent.
In these regions the end of the state of alarm can be approached with some confidence, all the more so now that the vaccination program has gathered speed. The latest Ministry data report that over 11 million people in Spain, or 23.7 per cent of the population, have received at least one vaccine dose, and that the proportion to have received both doses (or the single Janssen dose required) has risen to 8.8 per cent, (in total, more than 15 million doses have been administered) and one of the effects of this is that fewer and fewer cases are being reported among the elderly, particularly in the over-80s age group.