2021 is a year of hope and fear. Hope because with the progressive arrival of the vaccine, more and more people will be immunized. Although in the short term they will still be very few. At the moment, the Basque Country has only received 16,405 doses of the Pfizer preparation, which also requires two inoculations to achieve high effectiveness. A similar amount is expected to arrive each week. But until the solutions developed by Moderna, AstraZeneca and other laboratories are approved and their distribution begins, the percentage of the Basque population protected will be small. Although, and this is the most positive, the first to be covered will be the elderly who live in residences, the most vulnerable to Covid-19.
What has not changed is the threat. 2021 starts with the same one with which 2020 was closed: the fear of a new attack of the virus. The third wave has already begun to be felt in several autonomous communities and in Euskadi it seems that it is just around the corner. The data of the last days point in that direction.
The Health department notified the detection of 490 new cases yesterday. Infections remain for the third consecutive day in the 500 range, something that had not happened for three weeks. The same is true of the positivity rate. 6.9% of the 7,111 tests analyzed on New Year’s Eve gave a positive result. This level yesterday registered its highest percentage since December 12. Precisely that day was the one that the most severe restrictions were lifted in the Basque Country, when the reopening of the hotel industry and mobility between municipalities were authorized.
The lehendakari left the door open in his end-of-year message to adopt new measures in the coming weeks and months to contain the virus. “We have made exceptional decisions. We are going to have to continue doing it, ”Urkullu advanced. Basque Government sources do not evade concern about how the pandemic may evolve in the coming weeks. They have not liked anything within the Executive the agglomerations that have been lived during these parties in closed spaces such as shopping centers. To this must be added the unknown about how the new British variant of the virus will affect the Basque Country. It is for all this reason that Lakua does not rule out holding some kind of public appearance in the coming days to give a wake-up call to the population and insist that prevention measures be extreme and risky places are avoided.
And it is that the latest contagion figures seem to confirm what the Health Minister already advanced on December 21 when she announced the hardening of the Christmas Plan in the community, especially for New Year’s Eve. Sagardui said then that “we will probably be next week – referring to this current one – in different circumstances” at the epidemiological level. The latest data confirm that statement after registering the Basque Country in a matter of days an increase in cases linked to the relaxation of the most severe measures and the increase in social and family encounters typical of these dates.
Stability in hospitals
When Sagardui said that phrase, the daily infections were around 300. In recent days they have risen to about 500. The incidence accumulated at 14 days has also begun to rise, although very slightly. After falling to 235 points on Wednesday, its lowest level since the first half of August, yesterday it rose to 241.
35 people were admitted to hospitals on New Year’s Eve due to serious health conditions caused by the virus. The ICUs are currently treating 79 critically ill covid patients. The centers show less healthcare pressure than weeks ago. Still they have not been emptied. Both in the ward and in the ICUs they continue to care for a notable number of infectious patients, although their professionals acknowledge that the last few days they have been living quiet days, both in the Biscayan centers and in the HUA, especially in the critical units.
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