ARCHIVED - Spain records 8-month low in Covid hospital patient numbers: Covid update May 13
The fourth wave of coronavirus infection continues to subside across Spain
The coronavirus pandemic situation in Spain continues show signs of significant improvement, and the latest data published by the Ministry of Health report another decrease in the 14-day accumulated incidence rate to falling to 166.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, despite the confirmation of a further 5,701 new cases and the addition of 73 more Covid-related fatalities to the toll since the crisis began.
The official Ministry data now report a total of 79,281 Covid-related deaths since early last year.
Thursday afternoon’s update also shows that the number of patients receiving hospital treatment has fallen to continues to fall and now stands at 7,375, occupying 5.9 per cent of all hospital beds, the lowest figures since September 2020. At the same time, the equivalent proportion in intensive care units is down to 19.5 per cent, although the disparity among the 17 regions remains abundantly apparent: in the region of Madrid the figure stands at 38.5 per cent, while in the Comunidad Valenciana is a mere 4.33 per cent.
The Comunidad Valenciana is also the region with the lowest 14-day incidence rate (32.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), although Murcia, Extremadura, Galicia, the Canaries, the Balearics and Asturias are also under 100, while at the other end of the scale only Aragón (259), Madrid (267) and the Basque Country (333) remain above the “extreme risk” threshold of 250.
At the same time, the positivity rate of PCR testing has fallen over the last week to 5.3 per cent, close to the figure of 5% which is considered by the WHO to indicate that the spread of the virus is under control.