Spain registers lowest number of new coronavirus cases in three months

The Spanish Health Ministry on Sunday reported the lowest number of new coronavirus cases in a day since March 6. On that date, there were 106 positive tests confirmed, while today, there have been 96 diagnosed in the last 24 hours.

From March 6, cases began to spike in Spain, until they reached more than 9,000 infections in a single day toward the end of March. Since then, once the government’s confinement measures began to take effect, contagions slowly started to fall. But until now they had never dropped below a hundred.

That said, the figure should be viewed with some caution. Since the coronavirus crisis began in Spain, there has been underreporting of the figures on Sundays and Mondays, mostly due to lower staffing levels at weekends in hospitals.

Eight areas of Spain reported no new cases today: the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, the Valencia region, Galicia, Melilla, Murcia, the Basque Country and La Rioja

But for the last week we have been in uncharted territory. A new system for notifying infections has changed the statistical series. What’s more, since Monday Spain’s regions have been assigning cases to the day that they were diagnosed, meaning that the historical series is constantly being revised.

Eight areas of Spain reported no new cases today: the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, the Valencia region, Galicia, Melilla, Murcia, the Basque Country and La Rioja. These falls are reflected in the statistics provided by the Health Ministry this week that show the immediate spread of the virus: a new series that details confirmed cases with symptoms detected in the last seven days. On Sunday this figure fell to 0.6 per 100,000 inhabitants across all of Spain, after several days of rises.

The data is much more positive than that reported on Saturday, when there was an uptick of 271 new cases in the previous 24 hours. Today’s figures also saw other falls, such as the number of deaths in the last seven days, which came in at 39. The regions notified the Health Ministry of two new coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours.

Just six regions have seen new admissions to intensive care units (ICUs) in the last week, with nine in total. Hospitalizations in the same period have fallen to 263.

The Health Ministry has announced that it is revising the historical series of data from the coronavirus epidemic in Spain, and Fernando Simón, the director of the Health Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts, said earlier this weekend that the updated information could be available by Wednesday of this week.

English version by Simon Hunter.