Daily number of coronavirus fatalities in Spain falls below 100 for the first time in two months

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez this morning informed the country’s regional premiers that the number of daily coronavirus deaths fell today to 87. This marks the first time that fatalities related to the Covid-19 disease have dipped below the 100-mark in two months.

Since the state of alarm was implemented on March 14, giving the government extra powers to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus, there has only been one day with fewer fatalities: March 16, when there was an accounting change during the first weekend and 21 deaths were registered. Every other day during the crisis since then has seen more than 100 deaths.

The official number of Covid-19-related deaths in Spain now stands at 27,650, with a total of 231,350 confirmed cases

Today’s figure should, however, be treated with some caution given that during the crisis there has been underreporting from the country’s hospitals on Sundays and Mondays given lower staffing levels. That said, in recent weeks there has not been a significant uptick in the figures on Tuesdays or indeed the subsequent days.

The official number of Covid-19-related deaths in Spain now stands at 27,650, with a total of 231,350 confirmed cases.

In terms of new infections detected via the more reliable PCR tests, there were 421 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. This is also a substantial fall with respect to recent days, which have seen figures in excess of 500. These rises can, however, be attributed to testing capacity, which is ever greater. Cases that several weeks ago were considered suspected are now being tested, and are added to the official totals.

The majority of new cases were detected in Catalonia (116) and Castilla y León (101). But there are differences in reporting, which make comparisons difficult. The Madrid region, for example, has only reported six new cases today. The situation is complicated by the fact that the region consolidates the series of confirmed cases via PCR tests on a daily basis, assigning the new cases to the date when the sample was taken or when the result is emitted, meaning there is a daily update of the series of old cases – i.e. Madrid is not just issuing a new report every day, but also the former reports are being modified.

It’s possible that there are chains of infections that haven’t been identified

Fernando Simón, the director of the Health Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts

Fernando Simón, the director of the Health Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts, said at the government’s daily coronavirus press conference on Sunday that the progress of the pandemic in Spain is positive. “We always have doubts as to whether what we are seeing is what is really happening,” he said on Sunday. “It’s possible that there are chains of infections that haven’t been identified. As we gradually permit greater mobility, we could be exposed to imported cases, and all of this must be controlled with great care,” he said.

The number of new hospitalizations came in today at 327, and admissions in intensive care units (ICUs) at 28. This is a slight rise on yesterday’s figure, but is partly due to the fact that Catalonia reported no data on Saturday and as such has today provided two days’ worth of figures: 110 hospitalizations and 13 admissions to ICUs.

In the last 24 hours, 2,719 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital. The total number of discharges is now at 144,783, 63% of those who have tested possible via PCR tests.

On Sunday, Simón announced a change in reporting methodology from this week onward. “The advance of [deescalation] phases allows us to modify indicators of interest,” he said. “From now on, they will be based more on the capacity of early diagnosis and the capacity to react to any detected outbreak. From tomorrow, the information will be supplied in the afternoon. This will give us time to have conversations with the regions, to evaluate the data. Our monitoring of the pandemic will be more detailed and will allow for a more refined conversation with the heads of the monitoring systems.”

English version by Simon Hunter.