They had lifted the restrictions thinking they were out of the woods, but they must finally back off. Faced with a sudden explosion in the number of Covid-19 cases, the various regions of Spain are gradually closing in. Among them, Catalonia, the epicenter of this fifth wave of the pandemic, asked regional justice on Wednesday for the green light to impose a night curfew in the cities most affected, including the capital, Barcelona.
As of last weekend, closed space nightclubs have been closed in the region for at least 15 days, while a negative antigen or PCR test is required to attend outdoor events if they have more than 500 people. . In the past two weeks, the northeastern region of Spain, with a population of 7.7 million, has recorded some 79,000 new cases.
Valencia and the Canaries follow suit
Other regions have taken or are considering measures similar to Catalonia, such as that of Valencia (south-east). A curfew from 1 to 6 a.m. has thus been reimposed and the number of people who can participate in meetings in 32 localities with more than 5,000 inhabitants is now limited to 10.
The government of the Canary Islands wanted to adopt similar restrictions, but was prevented from doing so by local justice.
Strong contamination in young people
In question, the Delta variant, much more contagious, at the origin in recent weeks of an exponential increase in cases, mainly in young people. On Tuesday evening, the incidence reached 436 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days, a level that had not been reached since the dark hours of the pandemic.
And yet this is a national average. Because among young people, the situation is out of control. The incidence was thus Tuesday of 3,311 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days with regard to the fringe of 20 to 29 years.
Younger and younger hospital patients
“What surprised us a little is the speed of the contagions,” said Dr Alvaro Arcocha, deputy director of the Bellvitge hospital in Barcelona. In this establishment, patients hospitalized on the floor reserved for Covid-19 patients went from 20 to 110 in less than two weeks. In addition, the average age of these patients (44 years) is much lower than in previous waves of the pandemic.
With a significant portion of the population now vaccinated, this fifth wave is different from previous ones: hospitals are seeing younger patients arriving, many of whom are not vaccinated or have not yet completed the vaccination process. Nationally, the number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units as well as the number of deaths remain well below the peaks of the pandemic. On Tuesday, the authorities reported 13 dead in 24 hours.
The left-wing government has bet everything on an acceleration of vaccination and, even if it is a little late, its opening to 17 to 29 years. Pedro Sanchez thus repeated Tuesday evening, in a television interview, that “before the end of the summer, 70% of the population will be immunized and will have completed the vaccination process”.