Spain death toll surges over 9,000, infections cross 100,000 mark

Spain’s death toll surged over 9,000 on Wednesday as infections passed the 100,000 mark, but the rate of new cases continued to slow, suggesting the epidemic had peaked, health chiefs said.

Spain has the Europe’s secondhighest death toll after Italy, with the virus so far claiming 9,053 lives after a record 864 people died over the past 24 hours, while the number of confirmed cases reached 102,136. But on a day-to-day basis, the rate of new infections continued its week-long downward trend.

And most importantly, the number of people in hospital and those in intensive care was falling, suggesting the epidemic had reached its peak, Fernando Simon, head of the health ministry’s emergency coordination unit. “This is important,” said Simon who himself was diagnosed with the virus this week.

“Right now the central issue is not whether we have reached the peak or not, it seems we’re already there, and the numbers are going down.” The main priority now was to ensure that the health system was capable of guaranteeing adequate coverage for all patients, Simon said.

Officials said the figures gave a “very positive” indication that the unprecedented lockdown put in place on March 14, confining Spain’s population of nearly 47 million to their homes, was working. Crunching the numbers, Wednesday’s figures showed new cases increasing by just over 8.0 percent, compared with nearly 11 percent on Tuesday and 20 percent a week ago. They also showed the death rate decreasing at a rate of 10.6 percent compared with 27 percent a week ago, with Dr. Maria Jose Sierra from the emergencies coordination unit saying the recent fatalities were those “who were infected two or three weeks ago.”

Maria Linero, a 28-year-old doctor working at a private hospital in central Madrid but who did not want to give her family name, said they had seen a drop in numbers in recent days.

“Last week, we were getting between 30 to 40 per day. Today, we’ve had 20. It’s going down, little by little so we’re on the right track,” she told AFP.

In one of the hospital’s centers, they were currently treating 446 people of whom 63 were in intensive care, she said, describing it as “the lowest figure we’ve seen since the start of the epidemic.”

SPEEDREAD

The main priority now is to ensure that the health system is capable of guaranteeing adequate coverage for all patients.