ARCHIVED - Covid incidence rate soars in Spain but daily death toll drops to 8
Cases in unvaccinated age groups push the overall incidence rate up to 134
The latest pandemic update by Spain’s Ministry of Health on Thursday evening showed further acceleration in spread of infection across the country, with a further 12,345 confirmed cases taking the 14-day accumulated incidence rate up to 134.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants – a rise of around 14.5 per cent in just 24 hours.
Over half of those aged over 40 in this country have received at least one vaccine dose, but following the relaxation of the rules regarding facemasks it can be seen from the breakdown of the figures that the recent upward trend is due mainly to a sharp increase in contagion among teenagers and younger adults. The latest data show the following incidence rates for different age groups among the national population:
Age 0-11: 84
Age 12-19: 345 (up by 20% in the last 24 hours)
Age 20-29: 367 (with figures of over 800 in the regions of Cantabria and Catalunya)
Age 30-39: 172
Age 40-49: 112
Age 50-59: 55
Age 60-69: 47
Age 70-79: 19
Age 80+: 25
It almost goes without saying that there is still significant variation among the data in the different regions of Spain, but the upward trend is becoming more and more marked in various of them. The highest figures are to be found in Catalunya (238) and Cantabria (218), both of them closing on the “extreme risk” threshold of 250, followed by Andalucía (166) and La Rioja (130).
At the other end of the scale are Ceuta (16.6), Castilla-La Mancha (55), the Region of Murcia (62) and Galicia (64).
But there are also certain far more positive aspects in the latest data, including the reporting of just 8 more Covid-related fatalities, the lowest daily total since last summer.
At the same time, one of the consequences of there being more infections among younger people rather than the elderly is that the number of Covid patients receiving hospital treatment continues to fall. They now account for 1.94 per cent of all occupied beds, while in intensive care units the equivalent figure has dropped to 6.38 per cent.
Vaccination data
The number of people to have received the full dose of immunization vaccines in Spain has risen to 17.99 million, equating to 37.9 per cent of the population (well on the way to reaching the target of 70% set by the government to achieve “herd immunity”).
The 25.63 million to have received at least one vaccine dose represent 54 per cent of the entire population.
The Thursday evening update reports a further 747,589 vaccine doses administered, the highest figure achieved since the immunization campaign began at the end of December.
Image: @AsturSalud