The rate of weekly decline in the incidence of coronavirus slows down

The cumulative incidence of coronavirus cases has dropped in one week, from Friday to Friday, 150 points, to 463 cases per 100,000. In the same period of the previous week that difference was more than 300 points, so the rate of decline is slowing down. The Ministry of Health has reported today 22,400 infections and 174 more deaths.

A health worker walks down the corridor of a hospital. EFE/Javier Belver

Compared to yesterday, the accumulated incidence has dropped by only 12 points, but the decline phase of the sixth wave continues in Spain, which has already left the extreme risk (more than 500 cases) and is at high risk.

The Canary Islands are rising in cases this week with an incidence of 868/100,000, compared to 692 last Friday.

Still at extreme risk are Galicia (722, slowly falling); Murcia (667); Aragon (508); Catalonia (659); Extremadura (572, slightly rising) and La Rioja (571).

With less incidence, at low risk: Andalusia (276); Castile-La Mancha (269); Madrid (268) and Melilla (238).

By age brackets, the highest incidence occurs in the group of 12 to 19 years (727); followed by those between 20 and 29 years old (597) and those between 30 and 39 (507).

Deaths: 1,003 reported

The Ministry of Health has notified a total of 1,003 deaths from covid since last Friday, although many of them have an earlier date of death and have been communicated late by the autonomous communities.

Last Wednesday, more than 100,000 deaths from covid were reached since records were kept at the beginning of the pandemic and this Friday they add up to 100,413.

Compared to yesterday, 174 more deaths were reported.

Infections down

According to him Ministry of Healththe total of positive notified this Friday compared to the previous day is 22,400 and 122,904 in the last eight days.

The previous week, from February 21 to 25, a total of 168,302 were recorded, reflecting a progressive drop in coronavirus cases.

This week the barrier of 11 million infections was also overcome, 11,100,428 this Friday, since the start of the pandemic.

The positivity rate of diagnostic tests It continues to drop to 16.62%, 2.6% less in a week.

No pressure in hospitals

The ICUs are at 9.3% bed occupancy with 851 patients, 39 fewer than yesterday and 202 fewer since Friday, February 25.

In Spanish hospitals, on the ward and ICU, there are 5,693 covid patients (4.5% occupancy), 296 less than yesterday and 1,555 less than the previous Friday.

vaccinations

In total there are 39.1 citizens, 91.1% of the population over 12 years of age, with the complete schedule of the covid vaccine.

In addition, 24.2 million people have already received the booster dose, 51.1% of the general population.

57.6% of children between 5 and 11 years old (1.8 million out of 3.2 million) have received at least one dose and 20.1% already have the complete schedule since the start of the pediatric vaccination campaign.

US Weekly Jobless Claims Fall; Fourth-quarter GDP Growth Revised Slightly Up

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly more than expected last week, indicating that the labor market recovery was gaining traction.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 232,000 for the week ended Feb. 19, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 235,000 applications for the latest week.

Claims had risen in the week ending Feb. 12, which economists blamed on week-to-week volatility in the data and the delayed impact of winter storms early in the month.

With a near record 10.9 million job openings at the end of December, layoffs are minimal and economists expect claims to fall back below 200,000 in the coming weeks. They were last below this level in early December.

Many Federal Reserve officials view labor market conditions as being already at or very close to maximum employment.

Claims have dropped from a record high of 6.149 million in early April 2020. The tightening labor market conditions are boosting wage growth, which is contributing to high inflation.

Rising wages and better job security should, however, help to underpin consumer spending and sustain the economic expansion even as the Fed starts raising interest rates to tamp down inflation, and government money to households and businesses dries up. The U.S. central bank is expected to start raising rates in March, with economists anticipating as many as seven hikes this year.

A separate report from the Commerce Department on Thursday confirmed that economic growth accelerated in the fourth quarter as the drag from a resurgence in COVID-19 infections over the summer, driven by the Delta variant, eased.

Gross domestic product increased at a 7.0% annualized rate last quarter, the government said in its second GDP estimate. That was slightly up from the previously reported 6.9% pace. The economy grew at a 2.3% growth pace in the third quarter.

The economic momentum, however, appeared to have faded by December amid a strong headwind from coronavirus infections fueled by the Omicron variant. But activity has since picked up as the winter wave of infections subsided.

Retail sales surged in January and business activity rebounded in February, data showed this month. That has created an upside risk to GDP growth estimates for

the first-quarter, which are mostly below a 2.0 rate.
The United States is reporting an average of 80,131 new COVID-19 infections a day, sharply down from the more than 700,000 in mid-January, according to a Reuters analysis of official data.

Weekly balance of the third week of February of the covid in Spain

Week after week, the sixth wave of covid in Spain continues to fall sharply in all the indicators that mark the evolution of the pandemic, but not deaths, more than 2,000 in the last seven days

A health worker attends to a covid patient in a hospital in Rome. EFE/EPA/GIUSEPPE LAMI

The cumulative incidence of the coronavirus continues to fall in this sixth wave.

This Friday, with infections down (30,615), the incidence drops 65 points and stands at 919 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

The total number of infected since the pandemic began amounts to 10,809,222.

This week there have been just over 200,000 new cases, while the previous week this data was close to 330,000 thousand infections in seven days.

In this week, the incidence has gone from 1,461 on Friday, February 11, to 919 today. Over 500 drop points.

By communities there are nine that fall below 1,000, with Andalusia in the lower range (471) and Galicia marking the maximum figure (1,500).

By age groups, it is young people between 12 and 19 years of age who record the peak incidence (1,370), with people between 60 and 69 registering the minimum (565).

pressure in hospitals

In hospitals, satisfactorily, the pressure drops sharply due to the number of patients with covid.

Last Friday, 12,843 patients (10.3%) had been admitted; today the data is 9,742 (7.8%). They are 3,101 less in seven days.

And less than 10,000 patients had not been in health centers since the last days of last December.

In intensive care units, last Friday there were 1,588 infected with SARS-CoV-2 with a serious prognosis (16.9%), while today there are 1,284, 304 less with a percentage of 13.7.

Other data

The patients admitted for covid in the last 24 hours have been 869, compared to 1,346 discharges.

The positivity by PCR is today 23 percent, 6.5 points less than last Friday (29.4%).

Deaths

The positive of the data throughout this month of February does not translate, sadly, into the numbers of people killed by covid.

In the last 24 hours, 288 people have died from coronavirus, and in the last week 2,003.

The previous week the number of deaths was 1,760, so this indicator, for the moment, continues to rise.

So far in February, the number of deaths from covid rises to 4,365, in 18 days.

The official total death toll from the pandemic is 97,998, not far from 100,000.

The Minister of Health Carolina Darías, during the press conference after the meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, this Wednesday, February 16, at the Palacio de la Moncloa, in Madrid. EFE/Rodrigo Jimenez

Weekly balance of the sixth covid wave in Spain

In this last week, all the indicators of the sixth wave of covid in Spain have continued to fall, but not so the deaths, today again almost 400

Several people walk through a street in the center of Oviedo. EFE/JL Cereijido/File

In this second week of February, the sixth wave has continued in strong remission, with a clear decrease in daily cases, a decrease in the accumulated incidence, as well as in hospital pressure and positivity by PCR, but this has not happened with deaths , yesterday and today very close to 400 daily.

High death toll

In the last week, 1,760 deaths from covid have been recorded, and since last February 1, 2,362. It is a very high number in full decline of the sixth wave.

The daily average of deaths so far in February exceeds 200 deaths, in the last 24 hours 389, with a total official figure since the pandemic broke out of 95,995.

Indicators of the evolution of the pandemic fall sharply

All the indicators that offer data on the evolution of the pandemic in this sixth wave have continued to fall in the last 24 hours, and the balance of the weekly sum is in the same direction.

Cases and cumulative incidence

The new infections today have been 49,004, reaching a total number of cases of 10,604,200.

The weekly average of cases has been around 47,000, well below the January records, with daily figures well above 100,000.

The accumulated incidence, number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants, has fallen another 105 points today, and stands at 1,461, with a decrease of 838 points compared to last Friday, February 4, when it stood at 2,299.

There are three communities below 1,000 cases of cumulative incidence: Andalucía (583), Canarias (617) and Madrid (960).

There are five regions above 2,000: Murcia (2,189), Cantabria (2,183), Catalonia (2,127), Galicia (2,091) and the Valencian Community (2,041).

The rest are between 1,000 and 2,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, all going down.

By age groups, the decline continues, with those under 11 years of age at the maximum figure (2,288) and people between 60 and 69 years of age, the lowest count (821).

Strong drop in hospital pressure

Covid patients admitted to hospitals are strongly reduced.

Today the number of patients admitted to the plant is 12,843 (10.3%), compared to 13,623 yesterday (10.9%), but last Friday this figure rose to 16,326 (13%), which represents a decrease of sick by covid in hospitals in a week of almost 4,000 (3,843).

In the ucis the decrease is also notable. This Friday 1,588 (16.9%) are recorded compared to 1,633 yesterday (17.4%); last Friday the figure registered was 1,880 (20%). The drop in seven days is 292 fewer covid patients in the intensive care units of Spanish hospitals.

Other data

PCR positivity also continues to decline. Today it stands at 29.4 percent, and a week ago at 33.9 percent.

Patient admissions to hospitals on the last day are 1,210, compared to 1,873 discharges. Another positive fact.

Stop covid infections in the world by slowing down the growth rate. EFE/EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON

UN Weekly Roundup: January 29-February 4, 2022

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Russia-Ukraine tensions

The United States and Russia faced off Monday at the U.N. Security Council over Washington’s accusations that Moscow is planning a large-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, which the Kremlin has denied.

At UN, US Demands Russia Explain Its Troop Buildup on Ukraine Border

Somber Myanmar anniversary

Tuesday marked one year since the military seized the government in Myanmar. The army is clinging to power, democratically elected leaders face lengthy prison sentences and people continue to resist the coup.

People Resist Myanmar Military Coup One Year On

Attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern at the “multiplication of coups” after one appeared to be under way in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau on Tuesday. “It is, for us, clear that coups are totally unacceptable,” he said, noting coups have been on the rise lately. Tuesday’s coup was unsuccessful.

Guinea-Bissau President Withstands Coup Attempt

In brief

— Guterres on Tuesday appealed for the parties in Ethiopia to halt fighting in observance of the tradition and spirit of the Olympic truce. He said the truce, which is in effect now as the Beijing Winter Games get under way, could save lives and help the parties overcome differences and find a path to real peace.

— On January 29, a military tribunal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo sentenced 51 people to death — most of them militia members (and several in absentia) — for the 2017 slayings of U.N. experts Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp. The two were investigating mass graves in the central Kasai region when they were abducted and killed along with their four Congolese companions. The DRC has a moratorium on the death penalty, which the U.N. urged the authorities to maintain.

— The U.N. said on January 29 that it might be forced to end its humanitarian operation in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region by the end of February because supplies are running out. Stocks of food, medical supplies, fuel and cash have been perilously low for months because of a de facto government blockade on the region, which is fighting with the federal government.

— Funding shortages in Yemen, where nearly 21 million people need assistance, have led almost two-thirds of major U.N. aid programs to reduce assistance or close. Without more money, the U.N. says, further cuts are expected in the coming months.

Some good news

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that it had flown its 10th cargo plane in 10 days into the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The flights carry vital medical supplies provided by the ICRC and the Ministry of Health and will cover the immediate needs of thousands of people. Very little food, medicine, fuel and other humanitarian items have gotten into the region in months because of a de facto government blockade. The ICRC said it hopes the flights will become regular and has five more planned for next week.

Quote of note

“We have to remain vigilant. We never underestimated the Russian threat. Ukraine understands that every scenario is possible. But what we are seeing now is the implementation of destabilization scenario. And there is still room for diplomacy. I hope we will succeed diplomatically. If not, and Russia decides to attack, we will fight.”

— Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in a call with reporters Wednesday.

What’s ahead

Tropical Cyclone Batsirai is expected to make landfall in Madagascar on Saturday. The “very dangerous” storm comes just two weeks after Tropical Storm Ana struck the Indian Ocean nation. Preemptive evacuations have begun and aid agencies have pre-positioned supplies. The storms are bearing down on the country, where more than 1 million people in the south face severe food insecurity because of climate change and swarms of desert locusts.

Aid Agencies Brace for Cyclone in Madagascar