Spain is heading towards the great de-escalation with the lowest Covid incidence in 13 months

Related news

The good Covid-19 data -the incidence is the lowest in 13 months- in Spain they are encouraging the autonomous communities to eliminate, little by little, the sanitary restrictions that they had been forced to impose to stop the pandemic. Crowds in nightclubs and curfews sound like a thing of the past while regional leaders see October as the month of the ‘new freedom’.

Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha or Aragon are just some of those regions that are beginning to eliminate the first time restrictions, especially in hospitality and nightlife, now that Spain has the cumulative incidence lowest since August. The idea of ​​the autonomies, according to themselves they have explained, is to “try” to see how the citizenship responds and, in fifteen days, to continue making decisions. The great de-escalation begins.

During the closing day of the II Symposium of the Health Observatory, organized by EL ESPAÑOL and Invertia, the Minister of Health of the Community of Madrid, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, It stated that after eliminating the closing time of nightlife and the capacity of the hotel industry as of September 20, they would continue to make decisions.

A period of 15 days was set, that is, the beginning of October, to be able to advance in this new de-escalation. For the moment, the restrictions that would remain in force would be, for the most part, linked to capacity and the use of the mask. Although, for the latter, there is still time.

Something similar is what will happen in Aragon. The Minister of Health, Sira Repollés, announced this week that the closing hours of nightlife would be extended until 4 am due to good epidemiological data. In addition, there would be changes in the capacity of mass events such as weddings, baptisms and communions.

The limit of 90 people that is in force in this region will be extendable if vaccination certificates, past infection and negative diagnostic tests are presented. From now on, the limit will be adjusted to 50% indoors, with tables of 10 people, and 100% outside, with tables of 15.

Castilla-La Mancha has made the same decision. In an appearance held this Friday, President Emiliano García-Page has indicated that the liberalization of restrictions in the community will be taken “with the prudence of knowing that some measures and precautions must be maintained.” In this way, he has assured that this will not be an “anything goes” and that, just as more freedoms will be given, steps backward can be taken if the epidemiological situation worsens.

Masks

And what will happen to the mask? For now, it stays. And “for a while”. Already said the experts in the II Symposium of the Health Observatory. The first reason why the mask will not disappear is that “it is practically impossible to eradicate Covid-19”.

It was said by Iñaki Comas, researcher at the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) at the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (IBV-CSIC). It is precisely one of the lessons learned from the forum held this week. Masks “go a long way” and are even here to stay in specific contexts, such as flu epidemics and hospital settings.

And is that, to get to control the pandemic, “we need an important level of immunity at the planetary level,” said Eduardo López-Collazo, scientific director of the La Paz University Hospital Research Institute (IdiPaz).

The vaccination rate in Spain is one of the best in the world. According to the latest figures provided by the Ministry of Health, 75.4% of the population is immunized against Covid-19. In total, more than 35.7 million people have received the complete guideline.

In fact, vaccination in the 12-19 age group has gained momentum. Until this Friday, there are more than 2.5 million young people who already have the complete immunization schedule, that is, 65.8% of this group.

For its part, the 30-39 and 20-29 age groups they are also completing the immunization. Currently, more than 70% of people between these ages have completed the vaccination schedule.

Changes according to AI

One of the tools that the autonomous communities can take as a reference to give more freedoms to the population is the document of Coordinated Response Actions agreed between Ministry of Health and the Autonomous Communities and whose last update is from June 2021.

This document is not mandatory (as the Ministry of Health would have liked), but it serves as an indicator of response actions according to the accumulated incidence, the saturation level of the Intensive Care Units (ICU) and other factors.

This document explains that alert level 1 occurs when Spain has an AI of between 50 and zero cases per 100,000 inhabitants and alert level 2 when it is between 50 and 100. Thus, it is expected that in the month of October the incidence is below 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

In this case, the safety distance and the use of masks must continue to be maintained (according to the criteria of the Law 2/2021 of March 29) although several restrictions change, especially in relation to capacity.

According to the aforementioned document with an AI of less than 50, the number of attendees of events such as wakes, communions or weddings is expanded. In such a way that, if the event is held in a closed space, the capacity must be up to 50% of the venue, but if it is outdoors, there will be no limit of attendees.

It also affects the bars in which, in phase 1, it is allowed to increase the capacity of the interior to 50% although the bar consumption. The clear example that the document is one of recommendations and not mandatory is that many Autonomous Communities, such as Castilla-La Mancha, are already considering reactivating consumption at the bars of bars; despite having an AI above 50.

The epidemiological situation

Spain has registered this Friday the lowest cumulative incidence for more than a year. It has been placed in 91 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, following the downward trend of recent days. And the most sustained over time.

These figures, together with the good pace of the vaccination campaign, are a clear indicator that the fifth wave of Covid-19 it is remitting in our country.

Returning to the figures for this Friday, the autonomous communities have notified 3,222 new cases of coronavirus, of which 1,578 have been diagnosed in the last 24 hours. As for the deceased, the regions have registered 44 more, which brings the global death toll from Covid-19 in Spain to 85,783 people.

Follow the topics that interest you