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Date Published: 20/03/2023

ARCHIVED - Hospital pressure drops to lowest level of the pandemic: Spain Covid update Mar 20

ARCHIVED ARTICLE -

ICU and general hospital occupancy is considered controlled in all but two communities in Spain

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Hospital pressure drops to lowest level of the pandemic: Spain Covid update Mar 20

Since the Spanish government launched the new Covid Surveillance and Control Strategy in March last year, hospital pressure has become the main indicator for monitoring the pandemic. While no dramatic reduction has been reported this week, admissions are steadily declining and the intensive care occupancy rate has reached its lowest level of the entire health crisis.

In addition, hospital pressure in every community, with the exception of Ceuta (5.9%) and La Rioja (5.7%), is now under 5% saturation and considered controlled.

Coronavirus infections

The Ministry of Health registered an additional 4,696 cases of coronavirus on Friday March 17, a significant decrease on the 7,977 infections reported on the same day last week.

This brings the total number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic to 13,783,163.

Cumulative incidence rate

There’s been a nine point upswing in the 14-day cumulative rate since the last report, which has risen from 63.64 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 72.05. Despite the rise, this is still among the lowest values since the coronavirus control strategy was updated.

However, the 7-day figure, standing at 35.63, is slightly less than 50% of the two-week rate, a strong indication that the health situation should improve.

Although it has one of the highest hospital saturation figures, the autonomous city of Ceuta now has the lowest incidence rate of just 19.53 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. It’s followed by the Region of Murcia, with a rate of 25.25 while Andalucía has crept up seven points this week to 36.96.

Castilla y León (134), Madrid (129) and Galicia (120) are the territories with the highest infection rates.

Despite this, all regions are in controlled circulation, below 250 cases.

The highest incidence continues to be recorded in people over the age of 80, with a rate of 143.45 cases this week, followed by those aged between 70 and 79 (65.36) and between 60 and 69 (40.59).

Fatalities and hospitalisations

A further 254 Covid-related fatalities have been reported in the last 7 days, bringing the total number of deaths in Spain up to 119,254.

There are currently 2,145 patients hospitalised for Covid throughout Spain, up slightly from 2,006 last week, while 91 are being treated for more serious conditions in the country’s ICUs – a decrease of 3.

This means that 1.71% of all hospital beds are occupied by coronavirus patients (up from 1.6%) while the occupancy rate in intensive care has dropped from 1.07% a week ago to 1.03% today.

Vaccination data

As of March 20, 92.6% of the population over 12 (39,208,623 people) are double jabbed. In addition, 39,285,625 people over the age of 12, or 92.8% of the population, have received at least one dose.

Read more: How to book a vaccination appointment to get your Covid jab

Image: Pexels

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