ARCHIVED - Over 1,700 Covid outbreaks in Spain during second week of July

The infection rate across Spain is well over double the extreme risk threshold

The rate at which coronavirus infection is spreading throughout Spain continues to spiral upwards and the latest figures produced by the Health Emergencies Coordination Centre report a total of 1,728 specific outbreaks (as opposed to individual cases) in the week from 5^th to 11^th July, accounting for 10,529 of the cases reported.

These totals are similar to those reached during the peak of the third wave of contagion in early February, and the majority of the outbreaks (1,038, including 6,672 cases of Covid) have been traced back to social gatherings as the source of contagion. With the start of the summer holidays only 10 outbreaks were traced back to classrooms, although another 46 are known to have originated at summer camps for children.

At the same time, another 192 outbreaks were work-related, many of them within the sectors of industry, construction and hospitality, while 27 occurred in health and medical centres.

Meanwhile, according to the government bulletin published on Friday 16^th July, the 14-day accumulated incidence rate of Covid-19 has risen to 537 cases per 100,000 inhabitants following a rise of 70 per cent from 316 in the previous four days. The rate is now over double the “extreme risk” threshold of 250 and the number of Covid patients receiving hospital treatment has risen to over 5,000, accounting for 4.2 per cent of all occupied beds.

More worryingly, the proportion of ICU beds occupied by Covid patients has climbed to 9.6 per cent, and is up to 26 per cent in the region of Catalunya.