Hospital occupation by covid has increased since Friday by 4 tenths (up to 5.5%) and incidence among those older than 59 years has climbed by 114 pointsup to 790 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, after a long weekend in seven communities.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, the total number of patients admitted for covid in hospitals in Spain has gone from 6,362 to 6,883 (521 more patients) and, specifically, the occupation in the intensive care units (ICU) has increased from 3.6% to 4%, with a total of 360 critics.
Since the removal of masks indoors, the increase in the incidence among those over 59 years of age continues, although on this occasion, it was the highest in 3 days, exceeding 100 points, while incidence at 7 days -on the evolution of the transmission in the last week- up 38 pointsup to 382 cases.
The incidence at 14 days among citizens aged 80 and over, it exceeds a thousand cases for every 100,000 inhabitants (1,016) and among septuagenarians it reaches 839, while among sixty-year-olds it reaches 636 cases.
The transmission indicatorsin all scales, are in very high risk and positivity rate per testamong the population aged 60 and over, has increased since Friday from 28% to 30.8%.
In the last two weeks, almost 100,000 infections have been recorded in those over 59 years of age.
The latest health data
In this Tuesday’s Health report, it points to 57,329 new infections throughout Spain28,434 of them over 59 years of age and the rest in the general population, a fact based on the fact that only some regional health services continue to carry out tests on groups that are not considered vulnerable.
Communities have reported 212 more deaths, 203 of them that have occurred in the last 7 days. The total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic amounts to 104,668.
New variants of omicron
According to the latest report from the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES), since mid-February in Spain they have detected at least 12 instances of the BA.2 omicron sublineage, the BA.2.12.1 which is now gaining ground in countries like the United States, specifically in New York.
the city authorities have raised the level of alert due to covid transmission from “low” to “medium”although they have not released conclusive figures on the scope of this sublineage, but they suggest that it could be behind the increase in cases.
Refering to XE, a variant arising from the recombination of the original omicron and BA.2 and which is gaining ground in the United Kingdom, is also present in Spain, but at least 9 cases have only been detected since March. Health explains that this variant grows in recent weeks at a higher rate than BA.2 in the UK.
In the current epidemiological context of Spain, it is dominated by variant of omicron BA.2 -the one that predominates throughout the world- and that is behind the rebound in cases after Easter and the decision to rescind indoor masks.
Data from the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES) point to a prevalence ranging from 61% to 100% of cases, depending on the autonomous community.
Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Galicia and Navarra are the communities in which BA.2 is predominant, points out the latest epidemiological report, prepared based on screening in 13 Spanish communities.
Health remembers that “no differences were found in the risk of hospitalization or in the effectiveness of the vaccines between both lineages”, that is, between the original ómicron and the BA.2 variant.
Related news
In addition, the Virology section of the Microbiology Laboratory of the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA), in Oviedo, has reported in recent days that it has already identified twelve cases of new omicron sublineages, BA.4 and BA.5.
According to the Government of the principality, these sublineages present a very similar clinical pattern to BA.2, the predominant one in all of Spain.