The Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities have agreed to eliminate capacity limitations at sporting events, outdoors and indoors, as of March 4. It has been decided by the Interterritorial Health Council, meeting this Wednesday, upon verifying the “good evolution of all epidemiological indicators”, confirmed the minister of the branch, Carolina Darias, at the subsequent press conference. The incidence has fallen 81 points to 1,060 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the latest data update.
Until now, the capacity in outdoor venues was at 75% and only 50% of the seats could be occupied indoors. Although the occupation limitation is lifted, Darias recalled that the mandatory use of masks is maintained. Indoors, always; and outdoors also if people are standing and if it is not possible to maintain a distance of one and a half meters in the case of being seated, as stated in the last decree approved by the Council of Ministers that relaxed the use of this press by fresh air. You will also not be able to smoke, eat or drink at these events.
The capacity at sporting events was already the only restriction agreed between Health and the communities that remained in force at the national level. The mask, governed by royal decree, does not pass through this body. Lifting it continues the path that, despite the fact that the accumulated incidence is still above 1,000 cases, all regional governments have been undertaking for a few weeks to eliminate limitations on nightlife, hotel capacity or the Covid passport. 100% occupancy of the indoor and outdoor stadiums was allowed for a short period of time at the end of the fifth wave.
Childhood vaccination stalls
The Ministry of Health admits that childhood vaccination has slowed down and attributes it to the high rate of infection between boys and girls in the sixth wave. “Many of these minors have had to postpone vaccination,” explained Darias, who has urged “to continue advancing.”
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, set in the last Conference of Presidents the objective of having 70% of the child population immunized with the first dose in the week of February 7, a goal that has not been met. According to the latest data, 56.5% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 have been vaccinated, although the distribution is very uneven depending on the autonomous community.
6,500 deaths, despite the drop in lethality
The daily update of data shows 444 deaths this Wednesday, although the figure only part of these people have died in the last 24 hours. It is due to the usual delay in the notification of deaths, which generates sudden spikes when some community suddenly transfers deaths from days or weeks ago. Darias assures that the Ministry manages the figure of 89 deaths per day on average in the last week.
The minister has also provided lethality data from the different waves that confirm a significant reduction in mortality in this last wave thanks to the vaccines. The lethality of the pandemic now stands at 0.9%, although that related to this wave is 0.15%, Darias specified. Since cases began to rise in November, 6,509 people have died in Spain from the coronavirus.
In the third wave, the deceased amounted to 24,321, according to the minister, and the lethality was 1.68%. The fifth, different in that it affected young people more, registered 5,600 deaths with a fatality rate of 1.2%, according to data provided by the Ministry.
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