Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for covid-19 patients at the Bellvitge Hospital, in Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) at the end of January.Albert Garcia / EL PAÍS
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The data on the evolution of the coronavirus in Spain that the Ministry of Health has released this Tuesday reflects how the third wave is giving full in the chapter of deaths.
With 724 notifications by the communities in one day, the figure is the highest since the first wave, and is almost at the level of 762 deaths on Monday, with the difference that this figure was entered all weekend.
If we take the accumulated seven-day deaths, more reliable and less subject to specific incidents, this exceeds 3,000 deaths in a week for the first time (they are exactly 3,006), more than triple the 956 on January 4.
In total, the registry already contains 59,805 deaths with a confirmed coronavirus diagnosis since the pandemic began.
At the other end of the process, that of new diagnoses, the news is more favorable.
This Tuesday 29,064 positives were reported, an indicator that did not drop below 30,000 since January 12.
Taking the accumulated in seven days, the value is 222,052, and confirms the downward trend that began on January 26, when it passed 259,000.
The sum in a week has been above 200,000 since January 15, indicating that the transition from the rising to the falling phase of the curve is very slow and gradual.
And it assumes that any incident can break the trend.
In total, there have already been 2,851,869 diagnosed with coronavirus in Spain.
At this rate, by the end of this week or the beginning of next week it will exceed three million.
The 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants chains a week of decreases, from 893.91 on Tuesday, January 25, to 846.84 in the last Health report, which confirms the downward trend in infections.
In 12 territories the values are already lower than those of a week ago.
The data for this Tuesday, while they are bad, reflect a minimum sigh in the hospitals.
General care beds are slightly less occupied by coronavirus patients: the proportion has dropped from 45.30% on Monday to 44.58%, which is the second value in the series since the first wave.
There is no longer any territory with more than 40% (on Monday the Valencian Community was at 41%).
Even so, there are still six territories above 25%, a high level of risk.
Although the data for one day does not mark a trend, the saturation of the ICUs remits for the first time since December 31.
In this last report it is at 44.58% (on Monday it reached 45.30%).
This indicator is important for two reasons: it is the most difficult resource to improvise (although hospitals have doubled their capacity since the start of the pandemic) and they are a parameter that allows forecasting the evolution of deaths.
If your demand goes down, deaths will.
Within the disaster that only the Canary Islands have this value below 25%, in Melilla (71.6%) and La Rioja (72.4%) it continues to grow.
Information about the coronavirus
- Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic
- Restrictions search engine: What can I do in my municipality?
- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in the world
- Download the tracking application for Spain
- Guide to action against the disease
