As Spain still reels from the lockdown that took place earlier this year, Madrid hospitals are once again finding themselves under pressure from the rising number of Covid-19 cases. According to data from the Spanish Health Ministry released on 26 August, regional healthcare centers in the Madrid area are currently treating 1,800 patients, with 175 patients in intensive care units.
As experts warn about the second wave of the virus, numerous European countries, including France, have also reported a rise in the number of infections. Meanwhile, the number of cases of COVID-19 has remained relatively stable in the UK.
Globally, Latin America is still the region with the highest number of confirmed infections. “Earlier this month, Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed Europe in the number of corona cases. Brazil has confirmed over 3.7 million cases of the virus, the second highest after the US. Other Latin American countries in the top 10 for the most confirmed COVID-19 cases are Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru,” said expert from Monederosmart.com.
It is not only the Madrid region of Spain that is being affected by the recent surge of cases in Spain, with over 7,000 new cases of the virus reported in the country on 26 August, without taking into account the Valencia region due to “technical problems” (an area that reported 770 cases on 25 August). In fact, the Health Ministry has been reporting around 7,000 new corona cases each day for the past week. Spain has had approximately 420,000 COVID-19 cases since the outbreak started in March.
With 2,213 new cases on 26 August, Madrid is currently the region with the highest number of daily cases in the country. Catalonia and the Basque Country are also reporting a substantial number of new daily COVID-19 cases. As the infections across the country continue to rise, the high number of hospitalized patients and ICU admissions are once again starting to place hospitals under pressure.
At the moment, there are over 6,000 patients being treated for Covid-19 in Spain, with around 700 of this number in the ICU. In addition, there have been around 130 fatalities due to the infection over the past week.
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