ARCHIVED - Spain records first slight drop in Covid incidence rate since 17th March while reporting 10,232 new cases
The risk is categorized as extreme in six of the 17 regions of Spain as 148 more fatalities are reported
After the surge in confirmed cases of coronavirus which followed the Easter holiday period in Spain evidence is now accumulating to suggest that the upward curve in infection rates is flattening out, with the latest Ministry of Health update published on Wednesday 21st April reporting the first slight decrease in the 14-day rate since mid-March.
The falls in the rate was an insignificant one in itself, decreasing by just 1.3 points to 229.65 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last fortnight, but at the same time the 7-day rate remains under half that figure at 107 and this can be taken as an indication that further small drops are possible in the coming days.
However, there are still wide discrepancies in the situations of the 17 regions of Spain, and although Catalunya dropped just below the “extreme risk” threshold of 250 on Wednesday six more Autonomous Communities (Madrid, the Basque Country, Andalucía, Aragón, Navarra and La Rioja) remain above it, along with the north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. At the other end of the scale the Comunidad Valenciana remains alone in “low risk” territory with a 14-day rate of 40, while Murcia, Galicia and the Balearics all continue to record figures of under 100.
At the same time, the Wednesday bulletin reports a further 10,232 confirmed cases of Covid-19 (2,500 more than the day before) as well as a further 148 Covid-related fatalities, bringing the official Ministry death toll since the pandemic reached Spain last year to 77,364.
Meanwhile, the situation in the country’s hospitals eased very slightly, as the proportion of hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients dipped slightly to 22.68 per cent and the equivalent figure in intensive care units dropped to 8.03 per cent.
The vaccination roll-out continued, with a total of 13,497,809 doses administered to date across Spain and 3,611,606 people fully immunised with two doses.