Thursday, March 28

The incidence soars almost 300 points from Thursday to the record of 1,206 cases with 214,619 new infections

The rate of contagion continues to skyrocket in Spain in the middle of Christmas. This Monday, 214,619 new cases of COVID-19 and 120 deaths have been reported since the last data, which were known on Thursday – they were not updated on Friday as it was Christmas Eve. The incidence has broken a new record, reaching 1,206 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days.

The percentage of beds occupied by COVID-19 in hospitals has gone from 6.40% to 7.69% in the last 4 days. That of intensive care beds, from 16.27% to 18.26%. On the other hand, 17.94% of the tests that are carried out are positive.

The sixth wave of the pandemic is surpassing some of the highs that had been reached in previous stages. Last week the highest number of infections recorded in one day was reached, which has continued to increase. The maximum accumulated incidence data was also exceeded: the 892 cases per 100,000 inhabitants notified in January 2021, after last Christmas. Although the current cases even exceed those registered in the first wave, it must be taken into account that at that time only a small part of the infections were diagnosed.

The autonomous community that has reported the most new cases is Madrid, with 40,227 infections. They are followed by Andalusia (29,096) and Catalonia (19,384). Regarding the accumulated incidence, the highest is in Navarra (2,339), followed by La Rioja (2,145) and Euskadi (1,921).

At the same time that the pandemic advances, the autonomous communities apply measures and restrictions in the face of the Christmas holidays, such as curfews or reduction of capacity and hours in hotels and nightlife. In Catalonia, for example, the Government has implemented new restrictions since last Friday that include the closure of nightlife, the limitation of the capacity of restaurants to 50% and a curfew from 1 to 6 that currently affects 125 Catalan municipalities . Some measures that have been appealed by nightlife employers.

The Xunta de Galicia has the objective of reducing social interactions for New Year’s parties and meetings, although the possible restrictions that this measure will entail are yet to be determined, something that will be evaluated by the clinical committee this afternoon but could not be announced until tomorrow.

In addition, the Government again imposed the mandatory use of the mask outdoors last week to reduce omicron infections.

The collapse of primary care

The increase in cases is already noticeable in the health system, where the saturation of primary care has displaced patients to hospital emergencies. Professionals already denounce a “borderline” situation that can only be corrected by taking new measures.



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