Spain’s COVID infection rate drops for 1st time since November

By Alyssa McMurtry

MADRID (AA) - Spain’s coronavirus infection rate decreased Tuesday for the first time since November, according to new data from the Health Ministry.

This suggests the country’s unprecedented sixth wave may have seen the infection rate peak Monday, with nearly 3.4 out of every 100 people infected in a two-week period.

On Tuesday, the country saw the number of daily infections decrease to just under 95,000. On the same day last week, nearly 135,000 people tested positive.

At the same time, the positivity rate dropped for the second day in a row, but it still remains at the extremely high figure of just over 39%.

COVID-19 hospitalizations meanwhile continue to rise, as do deaths. The country saw 284 more fatalities Tuesday and hospitalizations increase by 97.

Yet as the worst of contagion shows signs of being over, some of Spain’s regional governments are considering lifting some restrictions.

Most notably, Catalonia will lift its overnight curfew from Friday, though other restrictions like the closure of nightclubs, limited social gatherings and COVID passports will remain.

At the national level, Spain’s government is mulling treating the coronavirus like an endemic virus such as the flu when the sixth wave subsides completely.

That could mean changing testing, isolation, as well as non-pharmaceutical interventions.