Laurence Dollimore
SPAIN has reported 9,773 new coronavirus cases over the past 48 hours, or less than 5,000 for each of the past two days.
It comes after there was no update on Tuesday due to a delay in collecting the data.
While much lower than previous days, the figures for Tuesday and Wednesday must be taken with a pinch of salt given that fewer PCR tests were performed over the bank holiday ‘puente’ weekend.
The next few days will tell if the infection rate will continue its decline, but some health experts fear there could be a rebound in week or two’s time.
According to the Health Ministry there have now been a total of 1,712,101 coronavirus cases officially detected in Spain since the start of the pandemic.
In terms of deaths, there have been 373 reported across Spain since Monday, an average of 186 on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Again it will have to be seen if the daily death toll will remain as low in the following days.
The total death toll from COVID-19 in Spain is now 47,019, but the real figure could be closer to 70,000, experts at the Carlos III institute have suggested.
Meanwhile, the ever important cumulative incidence rate continues to drop, reaching as of Wednesday 193.26 cases per 100,000 people.
It is the first time the telling figure has been below the 200 mark since August 28.
There are now no autonomous communities or cities with an incidence rate above 300 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The Basque Country has the highest incidence rate with 286, followed by Cantabria with 270, La Rioja 268 and Asturias 264.
The Canary Islands is performing the best with an incidence rate of 93.48 cases per 100,000 people (although it is increasing), followed by Ceuta with 143, Murcia with 148 and Extremadura 165.
In Spanish hospitals, the proportion of beds taken up by coronavirus patients has fallen to below 10% (9.91%).
In intensive care units, it has also fallen, although it is still at 22.93%.
