Coronavirus: nearly 10% of Spaniards have been infected, double the first wave

Almost a 10% of Spaniards (9.9%); that’s 4.7 million people, they have been infected with covid since the start of the pandemic, a figure twice that of the first wave, when 5.2% of the population was infected, according to the official seroprevalence study of Enecovid.

These are the preliminary results of the macro-survey coordinated by the Spanish Ministry of Health and the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) that led to the rapid antibody tests, but we will have to wait for the next few weeks to have more detailed data from laboratory analyzes.

The current prevalence – the percentage of people who currently have IgG antibodies detectable with the rapid scan – stands at 7.1% and is similar in men and women and shows little change in age, said Tuesday. the director of the Center. National Epidemiology of the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III, Marina pollan.

As in previous cycles, the study once again shows large geographic differences and is the central Spain, which again agglutinates 15% or more of infections, while in other regions 5% is not reached.

However, in this new wave a greater dispersion is observed, and the proportion of people with IgG antibodies is higher among the inhabitants of large cities (more than 100,000 inhabitants).

According to the advance presented on Tuesday, one in ten people living in Spain would have been infected with a coronavirus; half was in the first wave, according to figures from the first three rounds which peaked in July, and the other half in this second epidemic wave, said the director of ISCIII, Raquel yotti.

The coronavirus pandemic has already left more than 1,750,000 infections in Spain, while deaths exceed 48,000, according to the latest data provided by the Spanish Ministry of Health.

The cumulative incidence of the virus, one of the lowest in Europe, increased after the weekend to 193.65 cases per 100,000 in the past 14 days, official data showed.

The figures indicate a number of infected well above the more than 3 million mentioned on October 23 by the president of the government, Pedro Sanchez.

The government hopes to be able to start administering the first vaccines around the beginning of the year, confident that the European Medicines Agency will approve the Pfizer-BioNTech version at its December 21 meeting.

Source: EFE