The pandemic has reached another record in the province of Alicante for the third consecutive day with a large increase in the number of new cases compared to yesterday’s figures.

The total of newly infected amounts to 639 in Alicante, 169 more than the total of the previous day, 275 more than the same number last Saturday. In the province, 276 people are admitted to hospitals, 59 of them in Intensive Care Units (ICU), according to data provided by the Conselleria de Sanidad Universal y Salud Pública.

Last Thursday, the number of people infected with coronavirus in a single day reached a new high with 437 cases, 25 more than the previous highest figure, which had occurred almost seven months earlier, on March 30. Last Friday, the number of new cases rose to 470 while on Saturday they jumped to 639.

The incidence of the disease is causing most concern in Elda, which now exceeds 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. On Saturday there were 44 patients admitted to the Elda General University Hospital with covid-19 on wards while while 9 patients remained seriously ill in the ICU.

However, in Orihuela the incidence has improved slightly.

On Sunday morning, following its first morning of ‘curfew’  and after a week marked by the resurgence of all the indicators of the pandemic the Valencian Community has recorded a high of 6,159 cases in the last seven days, while deaths have equalled their worst  weekly mark since the ‘new normal’. There are now 838 patients in hospitals and 123 people in ICUs, levels that were last seen at the end of April.

89 of them are in the province of Castellón, 11 patients in ICU; 276 in Alicante, with 59 in ICU; and 473 in the province of Valencia, of which 53 are in the ICU.

The ‘president’ of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, said that the virus is developing rapidly. “Many of the new cases are asymptomatic” and “a high percentage are young”, but “we cannot close our eyes and we cannot wait for the situation to deteriorate further before we react.”

He has addressed this group directly: “In this pandemic, young people have a crucial role to play. You are the future of this community. You have been a vanguard in consciousness for the planet, for the equality and diversity. And I have full confidence in you. ”

The country now has a cumulative incidence of 362 although in the Valencia region the cumulative incidence is 153 but its positivity rate, 13%, is now considered to be a high risk according to ministry criteria.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) paints its maps red – the maximum alert level – from 150 upward.

The situation in hospitals, however, is better – the percentage of ICU beds that are occupied by Covid patients in the Valencia Comunidad 13%.