The effect of Semana Santa is visible in the rising corona figures in many regions in Spain. A phenomenon is the average age of corona patients in hospitals has fallen considerably compared to a year ago.
Epidemiologists previously announced the effect of Semana Santa would become visible in the figures a week later. The Spanish news site La Sexta wrote on Sunday that almost all autonomous regions of Spain are indeed showing the effect of the Holy Week. In Catalonia, the number of new infections on 11th April was double the number of the previous Sunday.
Average incidence in Spain increasing
The number of positively tested persons per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14 days is increasing again. The RTVE.es website shows an average of 182 people per 100,000 inhabitants tested positive on 9th April. In mid-March, Spain was able to reduce this figure to 127. However, it has been rising since then.
Change in hospital admissions
Not only are the rising corona rates a cause for concern, the average age of hospital admissions changed too. The age of patients has fallen by an average of nineteen years since the start of the pandemic.
Age shift differs by region
The situation also differs per autonomous region in this area. The largest shift in patients’ ages is in Murcia. In March 2020, the vast majority of corona patients in that region were between 50 and 69 years old. A year later, the situation is very different. Now, it is mainly young people between the ages of 15 and 29 in hospital with corona-related complaints.
In Madrid, the average age of corona patients went from 59 years in March 2020 to an average of 41 years now. Extremadura also shows a significant age decrease in patients who were on average 63 years old a year ago to an average of 39 years.
How has the age shift come about?
One of the reasons for this huge shift in age is that Spain is currently making a significant leap forward in vaccination. The Spanish government website shows that 15.1% of Spaniards have already received a first dose and 6.% have already been fully vaccinated.
Often it is elderly people who have been vaccinated and for that reason end up in hospital less frequently. The people who are currently infected are a lot younger, some of whom have to be hospitalised with complaints.
