10 per cent of Spain has been infected with Covid, new study reveals

Spain has been hard hit by the pandemic

Credit: REUTERS/Nacho Doce

Up to 10 per cent of the population of Spain has been infected by Covid-19, doubling the proportion that was affected in the pandemic’s first wave, a nationwide antibody study has found.

Health experts explaining the latest phase of the study on Tuesday pointed out that herd immunity had not been reached anywhere in Spain, a country where more than 66,000 people have died as a result of Covid-19.

“As many as 9.9 per cent of the population has been infected with Covid-19, one in 10 people who live in Spain. That means 4.7 million people,” said Raquel Yotti, director of the Carlos III health institute.

Dr Yotti said that prevalence was double the level recorded in the first phases of the study, which in July produced a result of just over five per cent of people having antibodies.

Transmission in Spain was minimal for a few weeks after a national lockdown ended on June 21 before rising steeply in August and September.

Coronavirus Spain Spotlight Chart — Cases default

“So half of all infections occurred in the first wave and half in the second,” Dr Yotti explained, adding that the detection rate had changed from a mere tenth of all cases in the spring to an estimated 60 per cent currently.

The highest rates of prevalence of more than 18 per cent were detected in the provinces of Madrid, Soria and Cuenca in central Spain, with Zaragoza, Navarre, Barcelona and Lleida among the next worst affected.

Marina Pollán, director of the National Epidemiological Centre, noted that even these levels of prevalence fall well short of “the lowest estimates of what would be required for herd immunity, at around 40 per cent”.

According to Spain’s health ministry, the number of positives detected this year stands at 1.75 million.

Spain’s national statistics institute recently revised the number of Covid-related deaths until May up to 48,000, a rise of 18,500 on the number recorded by health authorities and which would take Spain’s overall toll to 66,500.