ARCHIVED - Covid cases in Catalonia increase sevenfold in a fortnight

The number of coronavirus cases is on the up again in most of Spain, and the Catalonia region is one of those registering the steepest increase in positive test results.

A perfect storm of factors including the end of the state of alarm, easing of restrictions, San Juan celebrations, graduation parties and the start of the summer holidays has resulted in an extreme leap in Covid cases in Catalonia, which have multiplied by seven the last 15 days.

21,658 new cases have been reported in the region in just a week, seven times more than in the week between 11 and 17 June. 

While the majority of new cases are mild and affect citizens in their twenties who have not yet been vaccinated, health centres are nonetheless becoming overwhelmed and hospital admissions are on the up.

The severe cases currently being admitted to hospitals across the region are believed to have begun during San Juan celebrations on 23-24 June, the experts believe.

On Monday, there were 544 Covid patients in Catalonia hospitals, 121 of them in ICUs.

On average, more than 3,000 new Covid cases are being detected in the region every day, and the average age of those testing positive is 26.4. The highly contagious Delta variant is behind most of the new cases, and the 14-day accumulated incidence rate has shot up to 439 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

The national average has surged in the last week and has now reached 204.16; this in turn, is 20 times higher than during the same week last year when Spain was emerging from the state of emergency and lockdown.

14.09 per cent of all PCR and antigen tests carried out in Catalonia give a positive result, which is almost treble the 5 per cent that the WHO considers the threshold for controlling the epidemic. 

The resurgence risk for this latest wave, the fifth since the pandemic began, has reached 1281 in Catalonia, a level not seen since 22 October 2020 during the second wave.

Likewise, the Rt value, the average number of people that one coronavirus patient is expected to infect, has climbed to 3.30. In other words, the number of infections triples every day.

With all of this in mind, case numbers are likely to continue their upward trend in coming days unless the authorities step in and take measures to control its progress as soon as possible.