August ends with more than 5,000 daily cases, five times more than in July

The coronavirus did not take a break in summer.

August ends with 174,336 diagnosed cases - of them, 23,572 new since Friday - or, what is the same: 5,623 daily.

This is almost five times more than July, the month in which a second wave was consolidated that shows no signs of abating in the whole of Spain.

For Fernando Simón, director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES), the end has been a "bittersweet" month.

Although in his appearance this Monday he has admitted "very important" increases, he has also found positive aspects: the diagnostic capacity - twice as many tests are done as in July, but the positivity is also much higher, that is, fewer and fewer are detected. asymptomatic-;

Not many more outbreaks of seasonal workers have been seen, something that the Health Department feared;

the size of outbreaks of social origin “is reducing” and, perhaps the most hopeful thing: the communities with the highest growth rates in July have managed to stabilize transmission (in the case of Catalonia) or reduce it (which has happened in Aragon).

“The increase is greater than we would have liked, but it is to be expected.

We are detecting almost as many cases as in the peak of March and April, but it is completely different from then.

[With the current detection capacity] we would be in the seventh or eighth part.

But they cannot let us sleep peacefully, at least for us, the population does not have to be anxious, but they do have to worry, ”said Simón.

Ildefonso Hernández, Professor of Public Health and spokesperson for the Spanish Society of Public Health (Sespas), agrees with Simón that the cases of Aragon and, to a lesser extent, Catalonia may be encouraging, but qualifies the evolution of the epidemic of "Very worrying."

“What has been illustrated this August is that epidemiological surveillance, early detection and case tracking have not been taken seriously.

If it is not done well, we are going to have problems in the future ”, he says.

He also believes that it has been shown that "the rush" to resume certain activities, such as nightlife, have been counterproductive.

"I also believe that communication has failed on issues such as masks.

It is true that people generally carry them on the street, but perhaps they do it more where it is least necessary ”, he concludes with reference to closed spaces, where this instrument is much more useful.

The second wave began in Aragon and Catalonia with temporary workers, from there it moved to their capitals, where there is a lot of mobility and concentration of people (especially in Barcelona), followed by the northeast, in Navarra and the Basque Country with outbreaks in residences and centers health, but above all associated with social events, finally reaching the Valencian Community, Andalusia and Madrid, which concentrates one out of every five cases in Spain and is once again the largest epidemic focus.

This, Simón explained, coincides with large trips to holiday areas.

“Although they have been less than other years, it has occurred;

There has been a mix of people from areas that came from a large transmission and others that had very little.

We do not know if the return of the July holidays could have affected Madrid, but it is true that many Madrilenians have been away with other groups and the possibility that it has happened is high ”, said Simón, who has acknowledged that the exchange of travelers in the capital "generates concern."

"Madrid has a high risk because, fortunately or unfortunately, it is the basic communications center for all of Spain", he assured.

In this community, the situation is especially worrying because the hospital occupation does not stop growing.

Since Health first published the data, on August 20, the number of covid-19 admitted patients have gone from 1,245 to 2,128 (70% more) and those in the ICU, from 126 to 218 (73% more).

Although the occupation of beds with coronavirus patients is at 16%, far from maximum capacity, this could change in weeks if growth continues.

The second most occupied community is Aragón, with 13%.

The big difference is that it does not grow there, it has remained practically stable in the last two weeks.

In Spain the average percentage is 6% of covid patients with respect to the total capacity.

Hernández, from Sespas, believes that the figures are warning that the situation "could get worse."

This weekend, 83 new deaths have been added to the statistics, which adds up to 29,094 since the epidemic began in Spain.

More than half of these deaths (45) have been reported in Madrid.

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