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The third week of August is accompanied by a strong increase in the number of infections. The figures updated and released this Monday by the Ministry of Health show 16,269 new confirmed cases of coronavirus since Friday, an average of more than 5,000 daily. Thus, 359,082 people have already been infected by the virus since the beginning of the pandemic. This figure is double the one contributed just a week ago . Specifically, on August 10, Health reported 8,618 positives during that weekend and Monday .

Likewise, Health registers 1,833 cases in the last 24 hours . Of course, this data is only the positives that were made the PCR during the last day. Most of them are concentrated in Aragon (389); the Basque Country (344); Madrid (324); and Andalusia (203).

Despite the 16,000 new cases, Fernando Simón , director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health (CCAES), has assessed during his press conference that "it is a gentle rise that is moving through the autonomous communities. But it is not a new figure, we would like to be in lower figures, "he said.

Regarding the average age of the cases, Simón has detailed that "it is getting lower and lower, around 40 years old, but if we look at the last few weeks it is even lower, 37 years old ."

Asked about the new package of measures agreed last Friday by Health with the autonomous communities, Simón pointed out that homogenizing them was something that was already being studied . Although he considers that the prohibition of smoking in outdoor spaces if the distance of two meters between people cannot be guaranteed is the most striking, in his opinion the most important is the closure of nightclubs due to the associated outbreaks that occur have produced .

In this sense, he has also shown his concern about the effects of the celebrations in the street : "It is very likely that in the coming days and despite the protection regulations that have been followed, we will see a small increase associated with non-parties . Hopefully not. We have to get to the start of business in September with the lowest level of transmission we can. "

Madrid quadruples infections in two weeks

Madrid is the community that worries the most. In addition to leading the number of cases, the region has quadrupled this figure in the last two weeks : while between August 28 and 4 it reported 2,920 positives, today this figure rose to 9,430 in the last seven days . "The situation in Madrid is worrying and it is in the same situation as Catalonia was a few weeks ago. If it is controlled, it will change. We have been evolving and there will be other (communities) that will follow this line in the coming weeks," he pointed out. Simón, who added that the region "is implementing powerful control measures" and there are others "that can be put on the table."

However, the epidemiologist has doubted the effectiveness of these regulations: "We know that it is a community in which it is more difficult to implement control measures, such as metropolitan Madrid. It will be necessary to see if it is necessary to do more or not ."

Regarding Sunday's demonstration held in the capital against measures to stop the pandemic, the epidemiologist noted that "images have been seen that do not require much comment and people are intelligent enough to know what they mean and what they can mean for safety".

On the decision of Cantabria to increase the safety distance four meters when children or persons at risk, said that for him " n or no solid evidence to justify those four meters , but when we talk about vulnerable any too careful . The The problem is when these measures are misunderstood and there are those who want that measure to be put everywhere. "

All the Autonomous Communities will implement a tracking app

Regarding the implementation of the Radar Covid mobile application, the epidemiologist has been cautious and in favor of evaluating beforehand if they are truly useful so as not to take steps back , since the pilot project in La Gomera has provided valuable information but in a highly concentrated population: "Anything that is to implement this quick tool will be welcome. Right now there are 13 of the 19 Autonomous Communities in the process of implementing the tool, of which three or four can be implemented before the end of the month and the rest in September," he said. indicated.

"Our mission from public health is to assess the impact that this tool has, bring out the good it has and minimize the problems it can generate," he added.

The hospitalized, over a thousand

As for hospitalizations, these continue to be over a thousand . The official count puts 1,016 people who have requested admission in the last seven days (on Friday they were 1,015). Most of these are located in Madrid (291); Aragon (142) and Andalusia (125). Of the 1,016 admissions, 56 have entered the ICU during the same period of time and 35 since Friday , so the total number of patients who have required this hospital unit is 11,968.

The Health report has also reported 29 deaths in the last 24 hours . The total number of people who have lost their lives due to Covid-19 in our country now rises to 28,617. It should be remembered that this data does not yet include deaths in residences or those patients who presented symptoms of the virus but who died without performing the PCR. With death date in the last week, 54 deaths have been reported .

Almost half of the 54 deaths correspond to Madrid, which has added 23 . Andalusia and Castilla y León have counted six; Galicia, three; Aragon, the Canary Islands, Castilla La Mancha, Valencia and Extremadura, Murcia and Navarra, two; Cantabria and Catalonia, one. The rest of the communities have not reported any deaths in the last week.

At the European level , Spain has remained the second European country with the most infections since the beginning of the pandemic (359,082) for a week, only behind Russia (922,853). It is also followed by the United Kingdom and Italy, with 318,484 and 253,915, respectively. The country with the highest number of deaths continues to be the United Kingdom (41,366), followed by Italy (35,396) and France (30,410).

In addition, Spain continues to lead the large European countries with the highest accumulated incidence (AI) of the virus, with 125 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days. This is a far cry from the second country with the most AI: Romania, with 75.8. It is followed by Belgium (70); and Russia (46.1).

On the development of European vaccines, he said that "we know that there will be vaccines available in October, November or December. It is difficult that there will be any vaccine available before November." In the absence of information provided by China and Russia, Simón has declined to assess the Chinese or Russian vaccine .

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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