Silvia Calzón, Secretary of State for Health, this Monday at a press conference.Jesús Hellín / Europa Press
The Ministry of Health has notified this Monday 27,404 new infections since Friday - during the weekend it does not provide data on the evolution of the pandemic - and added 101 deaths to the official count, which only takes into account victims with positive for coronavirus by diagnostic test.
Madrid, the community where the epidemic shows the worst evolution, contributes almost a third of all new infections, with 10,864 cases.
In the case of the deceased, a quarter: 25.
Andalusia added 2,512 cases to the balance;
Castilla and León, 2,097;
Euskadi reported 1,451 infections;
Aragon, 1,282;
Murcia, 1,136;
and Catalonia, 1,073.
By cumulative incidence, that is, cases diagnosed in the last 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants, Madrid is at 618, while the Spanish average is 247. Only one community, Asturias, is below 100 (with 70 infections per 100,000 population).
More cases have been detected for days than in April and May, but the situation is very different because only severe cases were detected during the first wave.
Now, in contrast, many of those positive by PCR have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic.
The total death toll with coronavirus since the start of the pandemic is 29,848, of which 207 have been registered in the last seven days, according to the daily Health report.
In the last week 1,976 people have been hospitalized, of which 138 have required admission to the ICU.
The trend of hospitalizations has been increasing for several weeks.
This Monday Health has not provided occupancy data, but according to last Friday's report, 7.5% of hospital beds are already intended for patients with covid-19.
In the case of Madrid, that percentage rises to 18%, that is, almost one out of every five beds in this community are already occupied by coronavirus patients.
The Secretary of State for Health, Silvia Calzón, who replaced the director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, Fernando Simón - who has taken a few days off - at the press conference, also provided data on conducting tests PCR in Spain.
In the last week they are doing around 90,000 a day, he said.
The balance published this Monday indicates that between September 4 and 10, 631,238 tests were carried out in Spain, with important differences in the positivity rate (the percentage of PCR that test positive).
While the positivity of Asturias is 2.5%, in Madrid it already reaches 21%.
Castilla-La Mancha also has a very high positivity, 17.7%.
The higher this percentage, the worse, because it indicates that control of the epidemic is lost.
The World Health Organization estimates that it should be below 5%.
Spain tests at the level of other European countries (it is in the average number of tests per 100,000 inhabitants), but the positivity is the highest.
Calzón, who made his debut at a press conference to report on the evolution of the pandemic since his appointment in early August, assured that Health is studying with the communities the use of other diagnostic tests in addition to PCR, in reference to the new antigen tests that have begun to be commercialized.
These are still "in the process of technical validation," he answered questions from journalists about when they could start to be used.
Given the increase in cases, several communities have imposed new restrictions or have extended those that they had already approved.
Murcia decided yesterday to confine part of the municipality of Lorca, which in the last seven days has detected 470 cases of coronavirus.
The restriction, which corresponds to a flexible phase 1 (mobility only for work or health reasons, capacity in shops of 50% ...) will only affect the urban area, where some 60,000 people reside.
The Generalitat has approved the limitation of 50% of the capacity of the restaurants in the towns of Girona and Salt for 15 days.
Information about the coronavirus
- Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic
- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in Spain and in each autonomy
- Download the tracking application for Spain
- Search engine: The new normal by municipalities
- Guide to action against the disease
