[News] Spain reports 22,013 weekend coronavirus cases and adds 334 deaths to official toll

[SliCeR]

The Spanish Health Ministry reported on Monday 22,013 new coronavirus cases and added 334 deaths to the official toll, bringing the total to 49,260. This covers deaths and infections reported on Saturday and Sunday as data is not released over the weekend. According to Monday’s report, the 14-day cumulative number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants has risen to 224, up from 214 on Friday. The total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic now stands at 1,819,249.

In the last 24 hours, 2,156 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed. The highest number was reported by Catalonia, with 474, followed by Madrid, with 294. The number of Covid-19 patients who have been hospitalized in the past seven days has risen to 2,041, while 154 people have been admitted into intensive care units (ICUs). There are currently 11,431 Covid-19 patients in hospital, which equates to an occupancy rate of 9.4%, up from 9.14% on Friday. In ICUs, Covid-10 patients occupy 20% of all beds.

Spain’s secretary of state for health, Silvia Calzón, noted the slight increase in new daily coronavirus cases since Friday, but said this could be due to delays in notification over the weekend. Even so, the seven-day incidence rate of the coronavirus represented “an upward trend that should continue to worry us,” she said, explaining that it could place hospitals under more pressure in the coming days.

The Balearic Islands continues to be the region with the highest incidence rate, reporting a 14-day cumulative number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants of 406, up from 338 on Friday. The archipelago is followed by Madrid, with 300 cases, up from 276 on Friday, and Extremadura, with 280, a rise of 18 points in three days. The territory with the lowest incidence rate is the North African exclave city of Ceuta, with 106, down 24 points since Friday, followed by the Canary Islands and Andalusia, with 133 and 138, respectively.

La Rioja has the highest occupancy rate in ICUs, with Covid-19 patients occupying 35% of intensive care beds, followed by Castilla y León (29%), Catalonia (28%) and Madrid (26%). The territories with the lowest ICU occupancy rate are Galicia (7%), the Canary Islands (11%) and Ceuta (12%)

Spaniards more willing to get vaccinated
According to the survey from the CIS research institute, released on Monday, the percentage of Spaniards unwilling to get vaccinated against the coronavirus straight away has fallen from 47% in November to 28% – a drop of 19 percentage points in just a month. The poll, which interviewed 3,817 people, was carried out between December 1 and 9 – a period which covers in part the beginning of the vaccination drive in the United Kingdom.

According to the results, 40.5% of respondents said they were willing to get vaccinated as soon as the vaccine became available, up from 36.8% in November. The survey was published on the same day the European Commission formally approved the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The Spanish government has announced that the immunization drive will begin on December 27.

English version by Melissa Kitson.