Dimitris Kouimtsidis
THE number of new coronavirus infections in Spain has almost doubled in the last 24 hours.
In the last 24 hours there have been 167 new COVID-19 infected patients, an increase of 83 compared to yesterday when the number was 84.
That brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Spain to 242,280.
However, the figures once again don’t add up because that number is 315 more than yesterday when it was 241,965.
Of these 167 new cases, the majority of them have been in Madrid with 62, followed by Catalunya with 36, while all other regions have less than 15.
The number of deaths nationwide once again remains unchanged for the third consecutive day and stays at 27,136.
In the last seven days the number of fatalities registered are 40, down from 50 which it was yesterday.
The Health Ministry of Health has recognised that this figure, which for months was one of the main indicators of the evolution of the pandemic, has been almost frozen since May 26, when there were 27,117 deaths.
According to the Director of Health Emergencies, Fernando Simon, this is due to the fact that some regions are still listing old deaths that hadn’t been confirmed as COVID-19 related, as new deaths and not all regions have caught up with the new data system that was introduced on May 11.
At the moment the Spanish government only includes in its death figures those that have tested positive for the virus, despite the change in attitude by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which states that those who haven’t been tested but have a high probability of being a COVID-19 related death, should be listed as such.
That means that from the Spanish figures, a vast number of people who have died in care homes have not been listed as part of the fatalities caused by the pandemic.
