Government extends current restrictions until February 7

Catalonia already exceeds second wave covid admissions: 2,825 patients in wards and 612 in ICUs

Ara
2 min
Diversos professionals treballen en una UCI de l'Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, aquest dimarts

BarcelonaProcicat has agreed on a two-week extension of the current restrictive measures in force in Catalonia to stop the spread of covid-19. This means that measures such as municipal lockdown, the closure of non-essential businesses during the weekend, and time restrictions on restaurants will continue at least until February 7th, according to 'Catalunya Ràdio', which the ARA has confirmed.

The covid-19 pandemic is increasing hospital pressure in Catalonia. According to the data updated this Wednesday by the Department of Health, there are currently 2,825 patients with covid-19 in hospitals (37 more than yesterday), which means that the peak of admissions during the second wave of the pandemic in Catalan hospitals has already been exceeded. In addition, the critical beds occupied by patients affected by the virus have already exceeded the threshold of 600 (612, 22 more than yesterday).

From the 500 critical beds occupied, Health foresees the interruption of many of the operating rooms to dedicate hospitals exclusively to the coronavirus. But if the number of beds exceeds 650, urgent surgeries, such as the removal of tumours, would have to be postponed to absorb the demand for the virus, a situation that would seriously affect the health of the general population and to which Catalonia is heading if the drip of new admissions to critics is not delayed.

In fact, the Secretary of Public Health, Josep Maria Argimon, has already advanced this fact in an interview this morning to Catalunya Ràdio. Argimon has said that what is "more concerning" right now is the number of patients in ICUs, and added that the trend is to slow down and "even lower a little" the number of daily infections -we are at 26,000 a week. If there are now more patients in intensive care, he said, it is because the December bank holiday arrived just as the second wave was beginning to fall: "In just one month, we have 300 more people in ICUs".

In addition, the Health Department has recorded 3,886 new confirmed infections with PCR or antigen tests, although 2,090 are from the last 24 hours (a figure that will surely rise in the coming days once all the positives have been reported). A further 69 deaths have been reported.

Effective Potential Growth and R number decrease

As it occurred yesterday, EPG and R number continue to decrease. Effective Potential Growth is at 678 points, 31 less than yesterday, and the R number drops 6 hundredths, to 1.09.

As for the vaccination campaign, 161,481 people have already been vaccinated for the first dose (6,444 more than yesterday) and 872 for the second (478 more than yesterday).

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