The advance of the pandemic in Catalonia begins to raise concerns among epidemiologists. In just 24 hours, a total of 5,700 cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed. The increase has triggered the so-called Rt , the indicator of the speed of spread of the virus, above 2 points. From the 1st the epidemic is considered to enter a growth phase.
The contagion data that Catalonia is currently registering are not good, in the middle of the tourism season and with the vaccination campaign still in the middle. According to data offered by the Department of Health this Saturday, in Catalan hospitals there are a total of 473 admitted for coronavirus. They are two less than the day before, but there are five critics in the UCI and they amount to 120.
The pandemic continues to expand at a rate of more than 5,000 infections every 24 hours . The group that is especially vulnerable to this new cycle of infections is especially young people who have not yet been vaccinated. Especially due to the circulation of the delta variant, which is more contagious and which can affect the effectiveness of vaccines. That Indian strain will be predominant next week, according to Health Department estimates.
Three days with 5,000 cases
The cases confirmed by all kinds of tests since the beginning of the epidemic amount to 726,544, of which 5,705 have been diagnosed in the last 24 hours, the third consecutive day in which more than 5,000 infections have been added.
The risk of regrowth, one of the indicators that only the Catalan service calculates, has risen in 24 hours from 282 points this Friday to 438 points this Saturday . A disproportionately high increase in relation to what the situation had been showing so far.
As for the so-called Rt , which shows the speed of spread of the virus, it reaches 2.07. That is, out of every 100 infected, an average of 207 people are infected, an uncontrolled community transmission.
Catalonia has not seen such a high risk of a regrowth since the end of January, in the midst of the explosive phase of the third wave. The increase in all the indicators has been especially fast: just two weeks ago the weekly infections were around 3,200 per week, the risk of regrowth was 83 points and the Rt stood at 0.96. The contagions have almost doubled, like the Rt, but especially worrying is the regrowth rate, which has multiplied almost by five.
Detection collapse
This increase in infections, typical of explosive phases of the pandemic, is causing a flood of consultations in Catalan health centers that are already beginning to show a certain saturation of their systems for carrying out and processing PCR tests and antigen tests.
The good news is that the new infections are barely being noticed in the hospital system, since the population with the highest risk of complications is mostly vaccinated.
