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ARCHIVED - Spain Covid update December 16: incidence rate borders on very high risk
Spain has endured three consecutive days with high increases in the number of infections
Just a week before the Christmas holidays, the health crisis in Spain appears to be going from bad to worse. The latest data published by the Ministry of Health on Thursday December 16 show that three days of increased coronavirus transmission have led to the cumulative incidence rate barrelling past 470 cases while several regions have now reached the highest risk indicator.
Coronavirus infections
The autonomous communities have registered 28,900 new Covid infections, of which 17,309 have been diagnosed in the last 24 hours, up significantly from the 16,243 cases reported the previous day.
Spain hasn’t registered more than 20,000 daily cases since August, when the country was in the grip of the fifth wave of the pandemic and the delta variant was sweeping across Europe.
On Tuesday, 27,140 new positives were reported, on Monday 26,136 and over the weekend, between Friday and Sunday, a total of 49,802 infections were registered – an average of 16,600 each day.
This brings the total number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,422,168.
Cumulative incidence rate
The 14-day incidence continues to grow and now stands at 472 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, 31 points higher than the previous day. Moreover, the 7-day figure – a short-term indicator of the evolution of the pandemic – has jumped by 36 points to 291, a strong sign that the numbers will continue to rise in the coming days.
Ten communities are now at the highest risk level for contagion, according to the Ministry’s traffic light system: Navarra (1,330 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), the Basque Country (1,003), Aragon (801), Castilla y Leon (656), Asturias (620), Melilla (596), Ceuta (604), La Rioja (619), the Balearic Islands (570) and the Valencian Community (528).
At high risk (between 300 and 500 cases) are the Canary Islands (370), Cantabria (418), Catalonia (484), Galicia (497), Madrid (391) and Murcia (483), while the rest, including Andalucía (248) are in the middle (between 100 and 300 infections per 100,000 inhabitants).
While the vaccination campaign for younger children kicked off in Spain earlier this week, the effects will likely take some weeks to be observed, and this age group continues to have by far the highest incidence rate, at 686 cases.
Hospitalisations
There are currently 6,682 patients admitted for Covid (5,479 on this day last week) and 1,292 are being treated in the ICU for more serious cases (up from 1,041). The national average hasn’t shifted that much in the last 24 hours, with the occupancy increasing to 13.9% from 13.4% in intensive care, while 5.3% of ward beds are now occupied by Covid patients.
Catalonia (25.2%), the Basque Country (22.5%), Navarra (20.3%), Castilla y León (19.6%) and the Valencian Community (19.1%) have the highest ICU occupancy.
In the last 24 hours there have been 847 admissions and 689 discharges.
Fatalities
A further 48 people have died as a result of Covid, bringing the weekly total up to 195. So far, 88,667 people have lost their lives in Spain.
Vaccination data
Some 37,767,016 people representing 89.7% of those over the age of twelve, are now fully vaccinated, while 91.6%, or 38,586,398 people, have received their first dose.
According to the Ministry, the incidence rate among those not vaccinated between October 10 and December 5 was 126 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while that of those vaccinated falls to 43, that is, almost three times less.
"The greatest difference is observed in people aged 60 to 79 years, with a risk of infection in vaccinated six times lower, hospitalisation 14.5 times lower and death 16 times lower compared to non-vaccinated", the department stated in a report.
One year on...
On this day last year, during the fourth wave of the pandemic, before the vaccination campaign began and with very few restrictions in place, Spain reported 11,078 infections, a 14-day incidence rate of 201 cases. In addition, 195 deaths were recorded while ICU pressure had risen to 20.5%.
Image: Archive
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