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Coronavirus in Spain figures (20 August)

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Report below updated in Spain at 17.30h on Thursday 20 August

CORONAVIRUS in SPAIN – latest Health Ministry figures

The latest official figure* released by the Spanish Health Ministry on Thursday 20 August for the number of people who have tested positive for Coronavirus (Covid-19) is now 377,906. This is an overall increase of 7,039 against the figure released on Wednesday – with the ministry stating that 3,349 of these infections have occurred in the past 24 hours.

Figures released today show that 1,407 people have required hospital treatment in the past 7 days, with 90 in intensive care.

At a press conference on Thursday, announcing the figures, Fernando Simón, director of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, which reports to Spain’s Health Ministry, said: ‘Don’t let anyone get confused. Things aren’t going well. There continues to be transmission and each day we have more infections.’

The high number of infections detected, said Simón, is because of a ‘very important’ effort in diagnosis. ‘We are making a very important number of PCR tests and this implies that we are detecting many cases.’

However, he stressed that, ‘If we keep letting the transmission continue to climb, then we will end up having many people hospitalised.’

Fernando Simon, director of the Spanish Health Ministry’s Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies.

‘It’s not enough to say “I’m young, so I’ll be okay” – because every young person can infect others in their family,’ stressed Simón.

The ministry is still verifying and updating historical data (please also see discrepancies in figures* below). It has also not been updating any figures during the weekends since Friday 3 July.

Figures on Wednesday had shown an overall increase of 6,671 infections against Tuesday’s figures – with the ministry stating that 3,715 had occurred in a 24 hour period.

Tuesday had seen an overall increase of 5,114 infections against Monday’s figures – yet 2,128 in a 24 hour period.

When Spain imposed its ‘state of alarm’ from Saturday 14 March, the Health Ministry had confirmed 4,231 known cases of Coronavirus at the time (based on figures released on Friday 13 March), with 121 deaths from it. By Monday 16 March, there had been a further 4,960 confirmed infections, taking the total at the time to 9,191. The death toll on 16 March had increased to 309.

Of the 3,349 new infections registered in the past 24 hours by the central Health Ministry in Spain on Thursday 20 August, the numbers per region are as follows:

The current peak of recorded infections for a 24-hour period in Spain was on 31 March, when 9,222 new cases were registered.

The Ministry of Health’s official figures* for the total number of Coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday 20 August is now 28,813 an increase of 16 since Wednesday’s figures (yet according to the ministry, it is a total of 122 deaths in the past 7 days).

The current known peak of recorded deaths related to Coronavirus in a 24-hour period in Spain was on 2 April, when 950 deaths were registered.

A full breakdown of the data per region, together with age group statistics can be found by clicking here.

Mass Coronavirus PCR tests continue to be done in Catalonia. This week in areas of Granollers, Les Franqueses del Vallès, Canovelles, Collblanc and l’Hospitalet de Llobregat. (@SalutCat / Twitter)

Spain imposes strict new measures on nightlife

Last Friday 14 August Spain’s Health Minister Salvador Illa announced strict new measures on nightlife across the whole country – as well as a ban on smoking outside, where social distancing cannot be maintained – in a further attempt to stop the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19). Each region of Spain is imposing the restrictions following their own timetable.

These are the key measures:

Read the full report here: Spain imposes strict new measures on nightlife across the country

*Discrepancies in figures

Although the Health Ministry updated its official Coronavirus mortality figures on 19 June following on-going discrepancies with the data released by some of the country’s regional health authorities – there are still huge differences in the ‘excess mortality’ figures published for this period in Spain.

Click here for full report: Spain’s ‘excess mortality’ during Coronavirus pandemic is over 43,000

Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) published figures showing that the number of deaths for the first 21 weeks of 2020 have been 24% higher than for the same period in 2019 – based on information received from the country’s civil registries (1 January to 24 May). The number of deaths during this period for 2020 is 43,945 higher than in 2019.

Spain – ‘New Normality’

After three months under a ‘state of alarm’ (since 14 March), Spain entered its ‘New Normality’ phase on Monday 22 June, following on from the government’s four phased plan to relax the country’s lockdown restrictionsCLICK HERE for all details: Spain’s ‘New Normality’ – key points

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Click here for all previous reports on: Coronavirus in Spain

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