No 926 Monday 4th - Sunday 10th July 2022
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Keeping people safe and informed for over 18 years - The Costa Blanca’s oldest ‘FREE’ English language newspaper
ospitals in the province of Alicante are now treating 15 times more patients with covid than a year ago.
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The first day of July marked the beginning of the holidays for many Spaniards which also included large numbers of health personnel. Approximately a third of the 72,000 medical staff in the public health system will be away from their posts as they take a well-deserved annual break. As such, hospitals, health centres, clinics, care points, emergency services and other health services are having to do without more than 20,000 staff a month, over the next three months, as they take their holidays in July, August and September, and all this at a time that Covid-19 infections are showing a precarious rise.
RETURN OF THE MASK
C O V I D I N F E C T I O N S D O U B L E I N T H E C O M M U N I T Y I N J U S T T H R E E D AY S
According to data provided last Friday by the Valencian Ministry of Health, since Tuesday 8,789 infections have been recorded in what experts are beginning to call the seventh wave of the pandemic. In just three days the cases have practically doubled - they have grown by 96% - while the accumulated incidence in those over 60 years of age the only one that is being counted at the moment - is already 715.29 cases per every hundred thousand people. On the previous Tuesday the index was at 559.48. The current rate that is being recorded at the national level stands at 996 cases per 100,000. The new infections by province are 756 in Castellón, 2,632 in Alicante and 5,401 in Valencia. Of these, 3,775 are people who are over 60 years of age, 356 in Castellón, 1,141 in Alicante and 2,278 in the Valencia Province. The most serious aspect is that hospital pressure continues to rise. The Community currently has 993 people on the wards, 88 more than last Tuesday and 291 (41.5%) more than just a week ago. 42 of these patients are in intensive care units. Since Tuesday, there have been 18 deaths reported, 11 women between 69 and 99 years old, and 7 men between 64 and 89 years old. According to Dolly Prunés, president of CSIF health, "It is getting worse due to the lack of foresight by the Ministry of Health."
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