Sanchez Seeks Pandemic To Endemic “Evaluation”

Despite record numbers from the latest government Covid-19 infection rate figures, released yesterday 10th January, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said they also show falling death rates and that Spain along with the rest of the EU should consider treating the coronavirus as an “endemic illness.”

In a radio interview with Cadena SER , Sanchez said deaths as a proportion of recorded cases have fallen dramatically since the initial onset of the pandemic. He said he believes the pandemic has reached a point where the evolution of the disease can “be evaluated with different parameters.”

‘I believe that we have the conditions for, with precaution, slowly, opening the debate at the technical level and at the level of health professionals, but also at the European level, to start evaluating the evolution of this disease with different parameters than we have until now,’

He also confirmed a report from the country’s leading newspaper El País, that Spanish health authorities are already drafting a new monitoring system in which every new infection would not need to be recorded, and that people with symptoms would not necessarily be tested but will continue to receive treatment.

The Prime Minister applauded the high take-up rate which has allowed for the Omicron variant of the virus to be less impactful than at first feared, saying that because “‘Spanish citizens have responded positively to vaccination,” there is “a very high percentages of protection” in the population. 

The latest figures show that infection rates have rocketed in the last month to reach a record of 2,989 cases per 100,000 of population.

Madrid´s rate of under 2,500 cases per 100,000 of population is now below the national average and almost half that of Aragon which heads the regional infection rate list.

However the high infection rates have not been reflected in increased hospitalisations.

There are currently 16,496 Covid-19 patients in Spanish hospitals, representing a 13.40% occupation of beds, of which 2,200 are in intensive care representing 23.58% occupation of intensive care units.

From tomorow 12th January the Madrid health authorities are opening drop-in vaccinations centres for booster shots for the over 40´s which can be accessed at this link: Autocita Vacuna Sanidad Madrid.

To date Spain has recorded nearly 7.5 million cases of the coronavirus of whom just over 90,000 have died.