MADRID – The Spanish Ministry of Health reported a new milestone in the vaccination campaign, with more than 60% of the Spanish population fully vaccinated. Furthermore, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez tweeted this allows for ‘continued progress towards collective immunisation, achieving the targets set’. And as such, the current fifth wave is showing a downward trend.
According to the data provided by the Ministry of Health on Monday
28,587,458 Spaniards have been fully vaccinated. That is 331,509 more than on Friday. 70.4% of the Spanish population, 33,424,529 inhabitants, have received at least one dose.
The Spanish autonomous communities administered a total of 59,108,679 doses of Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen by Monday, of which 566,184 were administered over the weekend. This represents 97.8% of the 60,456,988 vaccines dispensed. Over two thirds of Spaniards have been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine.
Downward trend fifth wave
The fifth wave shows a strong downward trend following the restrictions taken by each autonomous region. Furthermore, the number of infections continues to fall and stood at 549 on Friday. However, in the health sector, the pressure is still increasing: there are 2,032 patients in ICUs (103 more than Friday) and the occupancy rate is growing to 22%, and 10,441 patients admitted (396 more and 88.8%).
According to the Ministry of Health, ICU occupancy rose from 20.8% on Friday to 21.9% on Monday. The situation is most worrying in Catalonia, with an occupancy rate of 49.7%, followed by Madrid, with 31.3%, and Aragón, with 22.5%.
Last weekend 39,638 new infections were registered, a figure lower than the 55,939 reported last Monday, and 119 more deaths were reported (157 on 2 August).
Broken down by age group, the incidence continues to decline in the groups with the highest number of infections: the 12-19 age group, (1,203 infections, 112 less than Friday) and in the 20-29 age group (1,139, 139 less).
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Spain has had 4,627,770 infections and 82,125 deaths, of which 262 occurred in the last seven days.
Pressure in hospitals and ICUs
Over the weekend, 1,047 patients with the coronavirus were admitted to Spanish hospitals, twice the number of patients discharged (511).
Catalonia has 2,722 hospitalised patients and 651 patients in ICU, then Madrid (1,850 and 331), and Andalucia (1,487 and 268). However, at the other end of the spectrum is La Rioja, with 71 hospitalised patients and 11 in ICU. This is followed by Navarra, with 92 hospitalised patients and 21 patients in ICU beds.
The communities have reported 482 deaths in the last seven days. Over the weekend, 119 deaths were reported and the mortality rate for the virus remains at 1.8%. However, Asturias has the highest mortality rate at 3%.
Cumulative incidence
The cumulative incidence continues the decline that started on 28 July. Although the extreme risk of infection exists throughout Spain, there is now only one community with more than 700 cases. This is the Balearic Islands, with 750.6 cases. Futhermore, there are only three regions – Aragón and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla – where the incidence is rising.
The cumulative number of cases of infection during 7 days also decreased and stood at 224.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This is a decrease of 32.1%. However, broken down by age group, the number of infections is still highest in the 12-29 age group. But there are also many infections in the 30-39 age group (617.9) and in the under-11 age group (535.9). Only in the 70-79 age group has the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants been below 250 in the last 14 days.
More than 5 million tests
Spain has performed a total of 52,887,516 diagnostic tests up to 5 August, including 38,172,268 PCR tests and 14,715,248 antigen tests. In the week between 30 July and 5 August, 1,081,897 tests were performed. The number of diagnostic tests carried out increased by 2%, with a rate of 1,122.87 per 1,000 inhabitants. The percentage with a positive result was 14.5, 0.4% less than on Friday.
