The latest data published by the Ministry of Health on the epidemiological situation in Spain indicate that the cumulative incidence (AI), among those over 59 years of age, has not stopped rising, rising to 841 cases (86 points more).
In addition, they warn of the worrying rise in the hospital occupationwhich is already in the 7.79%, with 9,553 people admitted. As for the Intensive Care Units (ICU) there has also been an upturn in patients, passing in just over two weeks from 3.8% at 5% occupancy, con 433 personas.
On the other hand, the number of deaths has decreased, lowering the mortality rate to 3.9%. During the last week, 152 people have died in Spain due to the coronavirus, a figure that, added to that of total deaths since the start of the pandemic, amounts to 107,906.
What is the ‘new Covid-22’?
Experts point out that this rebound in coronavirus cases is due to to the ‘new Covid-22’. As explained by the Deputy Minister of Health Care and Public Health of the Ministry of Health and General Director of the Madrid Health Service (Sermas)Antonio Zapateroin ‘medical writing‘, “The current coronavirus is very different from the original, It’s a different disease, so we can start talking about Covid-22 now“.
We can start talking about Covid-22 now
Zapatero has assured that the impact of the new variants BA.4 and BA.5 in Spain has caused this exponential increase in the number of people infected by coronavirus, despite the fact that the number of serious cases or deaths remain stable.
For this reason, the Deputy Minister of Public Health of the Community of Madrid has argued that the current covid “It is a disease caused by a different virus, caused by mutations different from the original, so it also has a different clinical result”.
Are vaccines effective against Covid-22?
Antonio Zapatero has also spoken about the efficacy of the vaccines against these BA.4 and BA.5 variants. The expert points out that, for the time being, attention must be focused on the cellular immunity, rather than antibody immunitywhich is generated by vaccines, because “93 percent of the population over 60 already has three doses in the Community of Madrid”.
And it stresses that “there is increasing evidence that cellular immunity is very powerful.” Said immunity is acquired thanks to the high degree of vaccination, for which the deputy counselor is in favor of administering the fourth doses with the binary covid vaccine or ‘antivariants’.
Likewise, Zapatero also wanted to highlight the effectiveness of vaccines: “the very considerable decrease in the incidence of serious illness and deathe”. So he added that “vaccines are very good”.
These two variants, BA.4 and BA.5, have a prevalence, depending on the territorybetween 19.2 and 76.3%, as reported by the Center for Coordination of Emergencies and Health Alerts (CCAES) and ensures that they are expanding.
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