Spain records highest-ever 14-day incidence of Covid after Christmas break

Spain on Monday evening said that the 14-day incidence of the coronavirus rose by 294 points in the four days from December 23 to 1,206.21 cases per 100,000 people after the Christmas holiday weekend

The Spanish Ministry of Health on Monday evening said that the 14-day incidence of the coronavirus rose by 294 points in the four days from December 23 to 1,206.21 cases per 100,000 people after the Christmas holiday weekend.

This increase, which comes after the ministry reported 214,619 new infections over the past four days, was the highest 14-day incidence ever recorded in Spain since the pandemic started.

A total of 5,932,626 people have now been infected by COVID-19 in Spain, while the 120 deaths from COVID-19 reported on Monday lifts the total number of fatalities to 89,139.

The news comes on the first anniversary of the start of the vaccination campaign in Spain on December 27, 2020.

In an attempt to contain the pandemic, the Spanish government passed a decree that requires people to wear facemasks outdoors on December 24.

Most regions have imposed restrictions on nightlife, such as requiring a COVID pass (vaccination certificate) to enter nightclubs or restaurants, while the Catalan region has closed bars from 01:00-06:00 hours.

Since the first person Araceli Hidalg received a vaccine dose, a further 85,443,893 vaccine doses have been administered, with 37,853,370 people (89.9 per cent of the population aged 12 or over) having received two doses. Besides, a further 12,720,094 reinforcement or booster shots were given to people aged 50 or over.

Spain also began a campaign to vaccinate around 3 million children aged 5-11 on Dec. 15 with specially adapted shots of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.