Spain’s Health Ministry reports 5,733 coronavirus cases and 33 deaths, the lowest figure since August 2020

The Spanish Health Ministry reported 5,733 new coronavirus infections and added 33 victims to the overall death toll, the lowest such figure since the end of August 2020. The 14-day cumulative number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants came in at 139 in Thursday’s report, a fall of four points in 24 hours. This key data point has been falling for some time now, as the country’s vaccination program continues to move at high speed. In total, 3,631,661 official infections have been recorded since the pandemic arrived in Spain early last year, while there have been 79,601 deaths after a positive Covid-19 test.

Spain moved to a medium risk level on Tuesday of this week, after the incidence fell below 150 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days. The only region that continues to be at an extreme risk level, of above 250, is the Basque Country (252.24).

The territories with the lowest incidence are Asturias, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia and Valencia. They all have incidences below 29, taking them close to the target level of 25 announced late last year by the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, for the health crisis to be considered under control.

Other regions, meanwhile, currently have worse data, due to the high occupation of their intensive care units (ICUs) by Covid-19 patients. These are Aragón, Castilla La Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalonia, the North African exclave city of Ceuta, La Rioja, the Basque Country and Madrid. The latter region is in the worst situation, with 36% of ICU beds occupied by coronavirus patients. The national average reflects this trend, with 17.27% of such beds occupied across the country.

As for the vaccination drive, Spain administered 529,130 shots in the previous 24 hours, according to data released on Thursday. Since the campaign began at the end of December, 25,572,945 doses of the vaccines being used – Moderna, Janssen, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech – have been delivered to Spain. Of these, 23,503,085 have been administered, which is just under 92% of the total, according to the Health Ministry’s figures. More than 16 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, which is 33.8% of the population, while 7.6 million residents of Spain (16.2%) have got the full protection offered by the vaccines (two doses in all cases except for the Janssen, which only requires one shot).

The figures also show that 93.1% of the over-60s have had at least one dose, while more than half have got full protection. The Health Ministry also calculates that 100% of the over-80s have at least one dose while practically all of them, 99.2%, are completely vaccinated.

English version by Simon Hunter.