Laurence Dollimore
SPAIN has registered 10,853 new coronavirus cases Friday in another sign the transmission of the disease is decreasing.
The figure is 1,436 fewer than Thursday and is the lowest figure this week apart from Tuesday, when 10,222 cases were detected.
A total of 5,008 of today’s recorded cases correspond to tests performed in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health.
Madrid accounts for the most of these, clocking 1,022, followed by Catalunya (598), the Basque Country (554) and Andalucia (514).
Meanwhile some 294 people lost their lives to the virus in Spain in the past 24 hours.
However it is the first time the daily death toll has dropped below 300 since October 19, when 252 deaths were recorded in a 24-hour period.
The total death toll in Spain from coronavirus currently stands at 44,668, however that figure does not include deaths from care homes.
Some 1,177 people have died from COVID-19 in Spain over the past seven days.
Head of the COVID task force Fernando Simon said tonight that there is a steady decrease in contagion in all of Spain’s regions, including among over 65s.
Speaking at his daily press conference, the head of the Centre for Health Emergencies said there is also a decline in hospitalisations, including in intensive care units.
The incidence rate of the virus in Spain is now at 325 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Simon reiterated tonight that the goal is to have the rate drop to 50 or 25 cases per 100,000 people by January or February.
“This will depend a lot on what happens on the bank holiday weekend in December and at Christmas,” he said, “although I hope that together we will achieve the least possible uptick in transmission during the holidays.”
He added that while the overall declining trend is encouraging, the figures are still ‘very worrying’ and that the country must remain ‘very cautious’ until the situation vastly improves.
