"It's Wednesday, and that means Covid infections in Catalonia must be rising." While not a hard and fast scientific rule, there is a pattern of this visible: it's common for more positive Covid-19 cases to be detected in the second half of the working week. Thus new daily cases in Catalonia have bumped up above the daily figure of 1,000 once more. On the other hand, week on week, almost all Covid indicators are falling. A slow descent that has been going on for weeks, but is noticeable in hospitals. This Wednesday, the Catalan health department has reported that the number of people in Catalan hospital beds due to Covid has fallen below 700, for the first time in two months, with a new total of 681. The peak for coronavirus hospitalizations in Catalonia was reached on January 24th, with 3,038. Intensive care patients are down from 260 to 248.
IA14 in Catalonia by age groups (blue=under 50, yellow= over 50)
The EPG outbreak risk is at 89 points, two points below yesterday. According to the latest data provided by the Catalan health authorities, the Rt transmission rate is at 0.89, the same as yesterday. In other words, every 100 people infected with the virus will pass it on to 89, and thus the pandemic is contracting. As well, the rate of new cases appearing over the last 14 days (that is, the IA14) is 104.25 per 100,000 inhabitants, and that figure also is declining.
Coronavirus infections and deaths
As for absolute numbers of infections, since the start of the pandemic the official figure of people in Catalonia who have had the virus is 977,280. The health ministry has reported 1,246 new cases in the last 24 hours. But since last week, the pattern in new cases per day has gone like this: Friday 1,317, Saturday 969, Sunday 620, Monday 250, Tuesday 743, and today 1,246. As mentioned, from Wednesday to Friday, the figures tend to rise, since fewer tests are carried out over the weekends.
Evolution of coronavirus in Catalona (blue= total confirmed cases, red = total deaths)
The index of positivity (percentage of tests giving positive results) stands at 3.36%, a figure that is below 5% for the first time in weeks - thus entering the zone in which the World Health Organization regards the pandemic as under control. Between 22nd and 28th August, the figure stood at 5.12%, and between August 29th and September 4th, it was 3.59%.
Daily deaths from coronavirus in Catalonia since June 2021
In Catalonia, a total of 23,772 people have died from coronavirus since March 2020. In the 24 since the last data, the health department has reported 7 further deaths.
Number of Covid patients in Catalan intensive care units by age groups (blue= under50, yellow=over 50)
Vaccination campaign in Catalonia
Regarding vaccination, the Catalan health authorities aim to administer 2 million doses during the month of September, after a significant drop in the rate of vaccination over the holiday month of August. The department does not get tired of repeating that the falls in jabs are not due to a lack of doses. As of this Wednesday, a total of 5,815,338 have had a first dose (7,575 in the last 24 hours). 4,922,958 people have now received their second dose of the vaccine (8,001 in the last 24 hours). In Catalonia, a total of 5,577,751 people are fully vaccinated (13,666 can celebrate having achieved this in the last day). It should be recalled that the Janssen vaccine only requires a single dose.
Percentage fully vaccinated in Catalonia by population groups (yellow=fully vaccinated)
More than 73.4% of the Catalan population has received the first dose of a Covid vaccine, according to the health department. 62.3% have the second dose, and the percentage fully vaccinated is slightly higher thanks to those one-shot Janssen jabs: 70.5%.
Vaccination in Catalonia, as in most European Union countries, began on December 27th last year. EU countries have chosen to follow a joint strategy.
Main image: A screen showing a coronavirus patient's vital signs / Carlos Baglietto