Coronavirus in Spain: the "freeze" in the death toll generates doubt

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For days, the country has been “freezing” its total number of coronavirus deaths, thus leaving room for doubt about the evolution of the epidemic in one of the states most grieving by Covid-19.

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Since June 7, the coronavirus death counter in Spain has been stopped at 27,136. The chief epidemiologist of the Ministry of Health, Doctor Fernando Simon, who reports on the situation every day, himself admitted that departmental newsletters have generated "  confusion  " and "  stupor  " since the methods of accounting for cases and deaths were changed on May 25.

Until then, when the epidemic was in sharp decline, the ministry reported 50 to 100 new deaths daily. But since this change of method, the figure has dropped to less than five, or even no deaths for several days. A situation which led the head of government, the socialist Pedro Sanchez, to congratulate himself before the deputies that Spain has arrived at "  zero death  ". In doing so, he gave ammunition to the right and far right opposition, which accuses the executive of hiding the real number of dead.

"  Source of disinformation  "

Who does this new counting system consist of? Fernando Simon argued that it would allow more rapid detection of outbreaks in the event of a resumption of the epidemic. The regions, responsible for health, provide the data that the government compiles, but must now inform cases individually and with a precise date, and no longer group them as before.

Doctor Simon recognized this: the total number of deaths was thus "  frozen  " due to "  discrepancies  " in the figures, due in particular, according to him, to delays in certain regions. The overall assessment therefore remains unchanged while "  the regions review the data on deaths [...] to be able to assign them a date  " and thus provide a reliable historical series, he explained.

Some regions assured that they did provide this data, but that it was not included in the balance sheets. This is the case of Andalusia, governed by the right, whose head of health, Jesus Aguirre, accused the government of "  totally disrespecting the deceased  " by giving "  lower figures  " to those provided by his region.

The new system "  places too much importance on reporting data from the previous day  ", so that if it is sent too late by the regions, it will not be counted in the total, notes Kiko Llaneras, data analyst at the daily El Pais, questioned by AFP. It has become "  a great source of disinformation  " and "  in terms of communication, it has disturbed the whole debate,  " he notes.

Excess mortality

The situation was further complicated when the National Institute of Statistics and a public research agency announced in late May that the country had recorded an excess mortality of 43,000 deaths since mid-March compared to the average of the past ten years.

The opposition immediately accused the government of downplaying the balance sheet. The latter argues that these figures include people who did not die from Covid-19 or suspected cases of coronavirus which could not be confirmed by PCR tests, rare at the start of the epidemic in Spain.

► Read also: Coronavirus: in Spain, a late reaction to one of the strictest confinements

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