Covid-19 outbreak risk and hospitalizations continue to be on the rise

The situation of Covid-19 in Catalonia continues to worsen, as the authorities are about to announce new measures to fight the pandemic.

On Wednesday, the new daily figures showed that the outbreak risk had grown again, reaching 362 points in the iEPG index – calculated by multiplying the average spread of the virus over the past seven days by the cumulative incidence over the past two weeks.

The outbreak risk is considered to be low at 30, moderate at 70, high at 100 and very high at 200 – on October 1, the figure was at 159, and now it has more than doubled.

This level has not been seen since late March, during the peak of the crisis.

The number of cases is also soaring: from October 4 to October 10, Catalonia reported 12,211 infections by PCR and other methods, the highest weekly rise of all time.

Hospitalizations on the rise

As for the transmission rate, on average every person with Covid-19 is now transmitting the virus to 1.37 people, significantly higher than the authorities' aim of 1, but below levels seen in July, when it was 1.8, or in March, when it almost reached 5.

Another worrying figure is the number of people hospitalized because of the disease, at 1,024 as of October 14, after a sharp rise of 151 in three days – the figure had not been less than 550 or higher than 810 for two months up until October, when the numbers went up.

The number of people in ICUs has also risen lately, up to 189 at the same time – yet, still far below the peak of 1,529 seen in the spring.

The number of declared deaths from Covid-19 per day in October has oscillated roughly from 10 to 25, also far below figures seen at the peak of the pandemic, when fatalities per day were normally above 100.

Press conference at 1.30pm

This comes as the Catalan government is expected to announce on Wednesday from 1.30pm new Covid-19 regulations, including shutting bars and restaurants for two weeks.

The executive also plans to limit capacity of shops and street markets to 30%, suspend professional congresses and fairs and close parks and gardens at 8pm, as it was revealed from meetings on Wednesday morning with businesses associations, trade unions and others.

The interim president Pere Aragonès will appear in a press conference, together with the acting health minister, Alba Vergés, and the acting interior minister, Miquel Sàmper.

Aragonès met with restaurant owners’ associations from 11am to discuss the new measures.