A man sitting on a bench in Pamplona on October 17. Alvaro Barrientos / AP
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Spain is close to one million infections by suddenly registering 37,889 new cases of coronavirus, the highest figure recorded in a single day (which in this case includes all the weekend cases, a period in which Health does not update the data) .
With 974,449 infections recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, the cumulative incidence is also the highest in the second wave, with 312 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on average throughout the country.
Communities such as Navarra (945 cases), Melilla (713), La Rioja (531) and Aragón (509) are well above the average and exceed the barrier of 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants which, together with two other criteria (positive and occupation of ICU), marks the need for perimeter confinement of its large municipalities.
The daily Health report also adds 217 deaths to the official count.
So far 33,992 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic, according to official data, which during the first wave did not include many cases of people who died without undergoing a diagnostic test.
With a death date in the last seven days, 459 people have died, according to the report.
"The stability that we were seeing in recent weeks seems to have again a small upward trend that must be assessed with great care," said Fernando Simón, director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, during the bi-weekly press conference in the Ministry of Health.
Spain maintains similar incidents to those of recent weeks, he added, "although it is expected that in winter, if we do not take prevention measures into account, we will have an increase in the incidence." "In some points we have very high transmissions."
The occupancy of hospital beds and ICUs has also risen since the last report, last Friday.
One in four ICU beds (21%) is already occupied by coronavirus patients, with large differences by communities.
Ceuta, Melilla, Madrid, Aragón and La Rioja are around 40%.
Castilla y León is close with 36%.
In hospitals, one in 10 beds (10.36%) is occupied by people affected by the virus on average throughout Spain.
Madrid and Melilla exceed 20%.
"We are all very tired," said Simón, with restrictive measures for many months.
“It is easy that it costs a lot to implement very tough measures.
The individual application of these measures can avoid this, ”he stressed.
Simón explained that the impact of the measures taken in Madrid has been "clearly beneficial" and pointed out that of the nine municipalities that entered perimeter confinement, seven are "clearly below 500 and five of them below 400" .
The incidence of 439 throughout the community remains "very high."
"We can not settle for that," he added.
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 the world
- Download the tracking application for Spain
- Search engine: The new normal by municipalities
- Guide to action against the disease
