Ninth week of Covid increases

Covid is not giving any respite and as we embarked on the first main weekend of the summer holidays the reported incidence rate of SARS-CoV-2 has already accumulated nine weeks of increases in Spain and in the last seven days it has increased from 136.9 to 151 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the latest bulletin of the Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System (SiVIRA) of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), published with data relating to the week of June 17 to 23.

The virological report also shows an increase in the percentage of positive cases for Covid, which in the last week stood at 34.9% of the total detection tests carried out in the sentinel system. This figure represents an increase of more than three points compared to the previous week.

Regarding the rate of hospitalization for coronavirus, in the last week reported it has gone from 3.5 to 4.5 per 100,000 inhabitants and remains above that of the second year of the pandemic at this time, in June 2021 when the second summer of the pandemic began and 48.9% of the Spanish population already had at least one dose of a vaccine against Covid and 30.4% even had two injections. The current rate of admissions also exceeds that of last year, when 85% of the total population was already vaccinated.

Last week, the hospitalisation rate registered a decrease compared to the previous week, going from 4.3 to 3.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. However, in the last seven days analysed, this indicator has risen slightly again to stand at 4.5. “In terms of severity, since the start of the season, 30.2% of cases hospitalised with COVID-19 have been pneumonia, 3.9% ICU admission and 7.9% fatality,” reads the latest virological bulletin.

Regarding the infections detected in Primary Care, although they are also increasing, the increase is less than that recorded in previous weeks and the graph already shows what could be a stabilisation, which could indicate that the peak of this wave of infections could be close to being reached, however that was before the mass gatherings of summer, and so we will have to wait for the next few weeks to see how the situation evolves.