More than 1,000 COVID-19 outbreaks remain active in Spain

USPA NEWS - Since the end of the state of alarm in Spain on June 21, health authorities have detected 1,374 outbreaks of the Coronavirus disease with around 14,500 cases. Of these, 1,019 outbreaks remain active with about 10,400 cases, according to data from the Spanish Ministry of Health corresponding to Monday, August 17. Since last Friday, Spain has imposed new restrictions on the freedom of citizens, such as the ban on smoking in the street, the closure of discos and nightlife venues, or the closure of bars and restaurants at 1:00 am.

Within active outbreaks, the area in which the greatest number of outbreaks and cases has been recorded is social, representing 42.5% of active outbreaks and around 40% of cases. Among them, the outbreaks related to family and friends gatherings (259 outbreaks and 1,608 cases) and those related to entertainment venues, with at least 70 outbreaks and 1,875 cases, stand out. In second place, with 16.2% of the total, there are outbreaks with a mixed component where transmission shifts, for example, from the family to other areas, such as work or social. The third most frequent group of outbreaks are those that occur in the workplace with 159 reported outbreaks and around 2,100 cases, which represents 20.3% of cases. Among them, outbreaks related to workers in the fruit and vegetable sector in situations of social vulnerability are the most frequent, with 37 outbreaks identified and more than 890 cases.

Other important outbreaks are those that occur in social-health centers (8%), health centers (2.9%), those that occur among other socially vulnerable groups (4.1%) and family outbreaks that affect different households (3 ,3%). In Spain, in recent days, there has been an increase in the number of outbreaks identified in social and health centers. There are currently 78 active outbreaks in this area with 1,188 cases. Of these, 69.2% have less than 10 cases. 80% of active outbreaks are small, with fewer than 10 cases. The largest outbreaks, some with more than 100 cases, are occurring in leisure settings, among workers in vulnerable situations and in social and health centers.

In Spain, so far, a total of 359,082 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 28,646 deaths have been reported. Spain has carried out more than 5.3 million PCRs since the beginning of the epidemic. The regions have increased their capacity to carry out this type of diagnostic tests by 8%, the Spanish Government reported. Furthermore, the rate of PCR carried out has grown to 113.95 per 1,000 inhabitants. Along with the PCR diagnostic tests performed, the regions have also reported the performance of a total of 2,164,063 rapid antibody tests, which represents a rate of 45.95 per 1,000 inhabitants and an increase of 1% compared to the week previous.

Likewise, 424,241 serological antibody tests have been carried out, representing a rate of 9.01 per 1,000 inhabitants and a percentage increase of 23%. In total, since the beginning of the epidemic, 7,955,615 diagnostic tests for COVID-19 have been carried out so far, of which 483,584 correspond to the week of August 7 to 13.