Covid hospital admission back above 500

BarcelonaFor days now doctors have speaking of a fifth wave of covid in Catalonia and as time passes the data is proving them right. According to the latest figures from the Department of Health, the number of hospital admissions for covid are once again above 500. Right now, there are 522 patients in hospital, 123 of them in ICUs. To find a similar situation of the number of admissions we have to go back three weeks, until the middle of June. But the outbreaks of contagions that are associated with the parties for Sant Joan have changed the trend and are noted in those admitted to hospitals, which still do not have much of an impact on ICUs.

After the warning of this weekend's data, it is expected that next week the worse cases from Sant Joan are fully reflected in the figures: "They will be very important to see the effects of the Delta variant on the percentage of hospitalisations," BIOCOMSC researches explain. Covid indicators are not good in Catalonia because the rate of infection (Rt) continues to soar and stands at 2.50. This means that each infected person, on average, infects two and a half people. Consequently, Effective Potential Growth has risen to 679.

The number of new infections also remains high and the percentage of tests that are positive remains well above 5%, which is the limit set by the WHO to tell if the virus is circulating faster than it is detected. As for the median age of infection, in this case it remains in decline: it is already 26.4 in Catalonia. Therefore, the bulk of new positives are concentrated in young people aged between 16 and 29, who are the last who have been able to request appointments to get vaccinated.

40% with the full guideline

Whilst covid infections do not stop, the pace of vaccination has not decreased either. Data from the Health Department reveal that soon 40% of Catalans will have received the full vaccination schedule. Now in Catalonia there are 4,290,340 people having received one dose, including those vaccinated with the single-dose Janssen drug, and 2,783,466 people with two.

The Health Department has also reported that so far Catalans have downloaded 1.4 million covid certificates that allow travel within the EU: 1,353,780 certificates are for vaccination -people with the full guideline- and for 37,421 recovery. Precisely, the recovery certificate is controversial because it is not given to people who have had covid in the last six months and were diagnosed with an antigen test. After a mess, the department finally said that "due to a strict European directive" the antigen test "has no validity". Affected people, therefore, have to wait six months from the time they were diagnosed before they can be vaccinated and then they will receive their vaccination certificate.

Impact of the Delta variant

With the latest figures, the BIOCOMSC notes that Spain joins the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Portugal, which are the countries that now have the most important growth in covid cases: "The presence of the Delta variant is probably one of the keys, along with the lack of immunisation of young population and socialisation in risky environments".

However, in the same analysis the BIOCOMSC points out that the current level of vaccination "allows an extremely strong decoupling" between the trend of infections and the number of deaths. Also the curve of hospitalisations is "uncoupled" from cases "significantly, but not as strong as in the case of deaths". This means that the increase in the number of positive cases "can lead to significant increases in hospitalisations".