Hospitals face 'critical' Covid influx with over 500 now in intensive care

Catalan health authorities are warning that the pandemic situation remains “critical” despite the slight drop in case numbers seen recently. 

The number of patients in hospital due to Covid-19 and in intensive care have grown rapidly over the last ten days. 

Since the data released on July 16, hospitalizations have almost doubled, increasing from 1,349 to 2,235, while ICU occupancy has jumped from 259 to 510. 

The department of health believes that ICU admissions won’t begin to slow down until "well into" August. 

The director of the public health agency of Catalonia, Xavier Llebaria, explained that the drop in cases is especially noticeable between the ages of 15-29 as well as between the ages of 30-49, where the most exponential growth occurred during this fifth wave. 

Ten days ago, Catalonia saw more new coronavirus cases than any other day during the pandemic reported, with 8,880. 

In contrast, there is still an upward trend from the age of 70. Despite this drop in new infections, the director has warned that the figures remain very high and do not anticipate that hospitalizations will begin to slow until the end of this week or next week.

Llebaria remarked that the Delta variant is behaving in an unknown way and that is why he avoided making projections on when the peak of ICU admissions would be reached. “It’s impossible to determine,” he said. 

However, he is sure that hospitalizations and patients in intensive care are expected to continue to rise this week.

The director of the Public Health Agency attributes the decline in the younger age groups to the effect of the measures put in place precisely to reduce social contact between these age groups. He added that the perception of risk among the population has also increased.

Other key indicators 

The outbreak risk and transmission rate have gradually been decreasing over the past two weeks. 

Catalonia’s R number - the average amount of times one person with Covid-19 transmits the virus to another - has been declining ever since a peak of 3.39 on July 6. The figure now stands at 0.91.

The outbreak risk is now 1,038, down from a high of 1,828 on July 9. These figures remain extremely high, as above 100 in this indicator suggests high risk. 

Vaccination progress

As of July 25, 2021, 4,909,414 residents have been given the first dose of the vaccine, 62.3% of the total population. Out of those, 3,873,794 have also been administered a second dose (49.4% of the total population). 

4,340,819 residents are considered to be fully immunized (55.2%). Under 65s who have already had the virus are only required to have the first dose, and others have received a single-dose jab. Therefore, the % of two doses administered and % fully immunized do not match.

Number of people diagnosed per day 

Hospitalized patients and ICU patients from July 29, 2020

Number of confirmed and suspected Covid-19 deaths per day (at hospitals until May 19, also other health centers from May 20, also elsewhere since August 5)

Outbreak risk (over 100 is high) and transmission rate (over 1 concerns authorities)

Number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants in last 14 days

Percentage of population vaccinated 

Covid-19 data errors and changes

On May 18, 2020, an error was detected in the system of gathering data of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Once this error was corrected, the total number of confirmed cases went down by 3,293 on May 18, bringing the then-total cases down to 60,148.

The following day, 6,385 overall deaths in medical centers were reported, some 229 less than the 24 hours previous, suggesting that figures were also being adjusted in fatalities. However, no explanation was given for the difference in the official daily briefing of the latest Covid-19 figures.

From May 20, the deaths in medical centers have been merged to include those from hospitals and other kinds of health centers, prompting a surge of 156 that day. 

On July 30, the health department changed the way in which information is released. It no longer shares overall figures on the number of people who have been in serious condition or total patient discharges since the beginning of the pandemic, but rather it provides information on the total number of people that are currently hospitalized or in ICUs.

165 Covid-related deaths over the weekend of January 23 to January 24 were announced by funeral homes on January 25, 2021. Due to a system error, these cases were not added to the death tolls for the corresponding days but that of January 25.

On June 16, 2021, the total number of cases decreased due to a decision not to count 5,898 positive antibody tests as they were taken from people who had already received one dose of the vaccine. 

On June 27, 2021 the health department informed that the vaccination data for the previous day could not be updated, and would be added to the June 28 update in the June 27 figures. 

The graphs show how the pandemic has evolved in Catalonia since the first diagnosis. All figures are provided by the Catalan health department and are updated regularly.