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ARCHIVED - Covid infections skyrocket in Spain after Easter
Health experts are worried that a new coronavirus variant is at work in Spain
With summer just around the corner and the weather heating up, the coronavirus pandemic seems like little more than a bad dream. Daily cases have been dwindling and although Spanish hospitals are still treating Covid patients, the health situation has been firmly under control all year.
Sadly, the pandemic is far from behind us, and Covid infections have skyrocketed from 800 to 2,000 per 100,000 inhabitants since the beginning of April, and the experts are unsure if this is a consequence of the Easter holidays, or the emergence of a new strain.
This worrying data has been revealed through the COVID-LOT project but one of its creators, Professor Jesús Pérez Gil, has reassured that it’s not quite time to hit the panic button.
"After observing a continuous drop and a subsequent stabilisation around 800 cases per 100,000 practically since Christmas, last week we saw the number rise to 2,000, which is more than double. We had not detected anything like this for a long time. This Friday we will have the data corresponding to the last seven days and we will have more information to analyze what is happening, if it is sustained or if it continues to rise," he explained.
Fluctuations in new coronavirus cases are nothing new, and have been observed the world over after times of increased social gatherings, like Christmas. However, the expert has cautioned that the sudden April increase is unlikely to be a result of the Easter holidays, since these types of variations usually take much longer to manifest themselves.
The team is leaning towards the emergence of a new strain, although the scientists insist it’s still “too early” to pronounce this with any certainty: "It has been the origin of other waves, but I dare not say it. We do not even know if it is going to be a temporary increase or sustained, but it seemed important to us to report what we had detected. We will know more in two to three weeks."
Interestingly, Spain suffered through a new Covid wave this time last year, which reached its peak in July, and another hit around September-October.
"I am not saying that the same thing will happen as in April 2022, but it seems that this is something that is being repeated every six months or something like that,” Pérez Gil pointed out.
Most importantly, this new increase in infections isn’t translating into hospital pressure: there are practically no Covid patients in intensive care and each day, fewer and fewer people are being admitted with the virus.
However, microbiologist María del Mar Tomás insists that we must all remain vigilant, especially since the recent appearance of an Omicron subvariant has triggered an upsurge in cases in India.
Image: Pexels
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