Confusion in Spain around the figures of the deceased from the Covid-19. This Friday, the Ministry of Health announced 19,478 deaths from the coronavirus. But the count is no longer the same as Thursday when the global balance rose to 19,130 with 551 new deaths in 24 hours, making Spain the third most bereaved country in the world behind the United States and l 'Italy.
On the other side of the Pyrenees, the count includes only those positive for Covid-19. Several regions criticize the choice, claiming that thousands more people died after showing symptoms of the disease but without being able to be tested. According to the new national methodology, which resulted in a modification of the balance sheets of the previous days, 585 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.
Amid controversy, the Ministry of Health on Friday tried to standardize the figures transmitted by the different regions, some of which like Catalonia (northeast) decided to also include suspected but unconfirmed cases.
Controversy over lack of tests
At the height of the pandemic, the virus killed up to 950 people on April 2. The number of confirmed cases in Spain has increased from around 5,200 to over 188,000, the ministry said.
The controversy over the death count is partly explained by the lack of available tests, especially at the start of the epidemic. "In many cases unfortunately, the test could not be done [...], while everything indicated that [the dead] had the Covid-19", recognized the vice president of the Madrid region, the most affected, Ignacio Aguado. "The death toll is much higher," he said.
Catalonia announced two days ago a new accounting method based on funeral services data including the deceased who tested positive and those who presented "symptoms compatible" with Covid-19. This region, whose death toll in the national balance sheet is 3,752, now evokes a figure of more than 7,500 deaths.
The government is preparing a progressive deconfinement
Spain has been subject to one of the strictest confinements in Europe since March 14, which has been extended to April 25 inclusive and should be extended even if it will certainly be relaxed. In hospitals, completely reorganized to fight the virus, the effects of confinement are being felt more and more. "For about five days, there has been some stabilization, we are starting to have more patient departures than arrivals," Antoni chief of epidemiology at the Clinic hospital in Barcelona told AFP. Trilla.
Our file on the coronavirus
Even if Spain is still "in a hard phase of the fight against the coronavirus", the Minister of Health Salvador Illa, assured that the government was beginning to prepare a very progressive deconfinement. To start this new phase, the number of daily tests has increased from 20,000 to 40,000 and serological tests have started to determine the percentage of the population immunized.
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