Spain is no longer classified as an ‘extreme risk’ country regarding Covid-19. The number of corona cases fell over the past 14 days to an average 235 per 100,000 inhabitants. Yet Spain is not out of the woods yet.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health in Spain published the latest figures. As the average incidence of the past 14 days fell, Spain is no longer referred to as an ‘extreme risk’ country.
Positive developments in half of the Spanish regions
One autonomous region managed to get the figure below 100: Extremadura has 96 corona cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In seven Spanish regions, there are no more than 200 corona cases per 100,000 inhabitants. These are the Balearic Islands (110), Canary Islands (110), Cantabria (168), Castile-La Mancha (164), Murcia (140), Navarra (151) and La Rioja (138).
According to the Ministry’s risk assessment, Spain is now ‘high risk’ with an average incidence of between 150 and 250 corona cases per 100,000 inhabitants. When Spain reaches 50-150 cases, it is an ‘average risk’. Between 25 and 50 cases per 100,000 there is a ‘low risk’.
Not all of Spain out of the trouble zone
Although there is a downward trend in Spain after the third wave of corona, there are still regions where the virus is taking hold. For example, Valencia has 467 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Catalonia (450), Melilla (449) and Madrid (432). Therefore, according to the standards of the Spanish Ministry, these areas still present an ‘extreme risk’.
Pressure on hospitals in Spain variable
The pressure on hospitals in Spain is still high. An overview on Spanish news site RTVE, shows that an average 31.5% of the IC beds in Spain are occupied with Covid-19 patients. However, this situation differs considerably per autonomous region. For example, the occupancy rates of the intensive care unit are quite low in the Canary Islands (17.7%), Navarre (15.3%), Extremadura (18.9%), Melilla (17.7%) and Murcia (18.9 %). High IC occupancy rates occur in the regions of Madrid (45.4%), Ceuta (41.2%) and Castile and León (40%).
