COVID situation in Spain clarified

I write to you because I was surprised to read an article in today’s (Aug. 13) newspaper on page 11, in which some of the data about the situation of the pandemic in Spain were inaccurate.

In the article it is mentioned that Spain reported an average of 4,923 new cases daily during the last seven days, a number which is unfortunately not correct.

The last official data available are the following:

August 11: 1,690 new cases

August 10: 1,418

August 6: 1,895

August 5: 1,683

These numbers are above the average in other European countries but not by very far. On August 11 France reported 1,397 new cases and Germany 1,226, for instance.

Some other data related to the above:

The week from July 27 to August 2 there were a total of 17,836 new cases

The week from July 20 to July 26 there were 15,233

If you make the count, the number goes between 2,000 and 2,500 new cases daily. Not an average of almost 5,000 as stated in the PhilStar article.

Regarding the number of overall confirmed cases, although it is true that it is the highest in western Europe with 329,784 cases in total, the number is not far from that of the United Kingdom with 311,641 cases.

However, if you take into account the total number of deaths, you can see that it is much smaller. While Spain has so far had a total of 28,579 deaths, the United Kingdom has reported 46,526, Italy 35,215 and France 30,354. This figures show that the lethality rate of the virus in Spain is approximately 8.6%, whereas in the United Kingdom is 14.9%, the same as in France, 14% in Italy and 13.2% in Belgium.

On a totally personal note, we do not know why there are more infections in Spain than in other European neighboring countries, as Spain is one of the countries in Europe where more people are using masks, even outdoors. When I was in Spain in July everybody was using masks all the time, even very small children, a fact that surprised many people coming from abroad and particularly from northern Europe. In my modest opinion, there is still so much that we do not understand from this virus.

I very much hope that the Philippine Star will take into account all the above information in order to provide a more accurate picture of the situation of the pandemic in Spain. Thank you and best regards. – Amaya Fuentes Milani, Chargé d’Affaires, Embassy of Spain in Manila