COVID-19 pandemic in Spain

COVID-19 pandemic in Spain
DiseaseCOVID-19
Virus strainSARS-CoV-2
LocationSpain
First outbreakWuhan, Hubei, China[1][2]
Index caseLa Gomera, Canary Islands[3]
Arrival date31 January 2020
(4 years, 9 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
Confirmed cases13,980,340[4]
Hospitalized cases230,392 (total)
5,663 (in last 7 days)[5][6]
Recovered150,376[6]
Deaths
121,852[4]
Fatality rate0.87%
Government website
sanidad.gob.es/nCov

The COVID-19 pandemic in Spain has resulted in 13,980,340[4] confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 121,852[4] deaths.

The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Spain on 31 January 2020, when a German tourist tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in La Gomera, Canary Islands.[3] Post-hoc genetic analysis has shown that at least 15 strains of the virus had been imported, and community transmission began by mid-February.[7] By 13 March, cases had been confirmed in all 50 provinces of the country.

A partially unconstitutional lockdown was imposed on 14 March 2020.[8][9] On 29 March, it was announced that, beginning the following day, all non-essential workers were ordered to remain at home for the next 14 days.[10] By late March, the Community of Madrid has recorded the most cases and deaths in the country. Medical professionals and those who live in retirement homes have experienced especially high infection rates.[11] On 25 March, the official death toll in Spain surpassed that of mainland China.[12] On 2 April, 950 people died of the virus in a 24-hour period—at the time, the most by any country in a single day.[13] On 17 May, the daily death toll announced by the Spanish government fell below 100 for the first time,[14] and 1 June was the first day without deaths by COVID-19.[15] The state of alarm ended on 21 June.[16] However, the number of cases increased again in July in a number of cities including Barcelona, Zaragoza and Madrid, which led to reimposition of some restrictions but no national lockdown.[17][18][19][20]

Studies have suggested that the number of infections and deaths may have been underestimated due to lack of testing and reporting, and many people with only mild or no symptoms were not tested.[21][22] Reports in May suggested that, based on a sample of more than 63,000 people, the number of infections may be ten times higher than the number of confirmed cases by that date, and Madrid and several provinces of Castilla–La Mancha and Castile and León were the most affected areas with a percentage of infection greater than 10%.[23][24] There may also be as many as 15,815 more deaths according to the Spanish Ministry of Health monitoring system on daily excess mortality (Sistema de Monitorización de la Mortalidad Diaria – MoMo).[25] On 6 July 2020, the results of a Government of Spain nationwide seroprevalence study showed that about two million people, or 5.2% of the population, could have been infected during the pandemic.[26][27] Spain was the second country in Europe (behind Russia) to record half a million cases.[28] On 21 October, Spain passed 1 million COVID-19 cases, with 1,005,295 infections and 34,366 deaths reported, a third of which occurred in Madrid.[29]

As of September 2021, Spain is one of the countries with the highest percentage of its population vaccinated (76% fully vaccinated and 79% with the first dose),[30] while also being one of the countries more in favor of vaccines against COVID-19 (nearly 94% of its population is already vaccinated or wants to be).[31]

As of 4 February 2023, a total of 112,304,453 vaccine doses have been administered.[32]

  1. ^ "Q&A on coronaviruses (COVID-19)". World Health Organization. Retrieved 2020-03-24. The outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.
  2. ^ Sheikh K, Rabin RC (2020-03-10). "The Coronavirus: What Scientists Have Learned So Far". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  3. ^ a b Linde P (2020-01-31). "Sanidad confirma en La Gomera el primer caso de coronavirus en España". El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-01-31. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
  4. ^ a b c d Mathieu, Edouard; Ritchie, Hannah; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas; Appel, Cameron; Giattino, Charlie; Hasell, Joe; Macdonald, Bobbie; Dattani, Saloni; Beltekian, Diana; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Roser, Max (2020–2024). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Retrieved 2024-11-17.
  5. ^ "Enfermedad por nuevo coronavirus, COVID-19: Situación actual en España (Ministerio de Sanidad)". Ministerio de Sanidad (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  6. ^ a b "El mapa del coronavirus en España: 29.418 muertos y más de 498.000 contagiados". RTVE (in Spanish). 2022-06-10.
  7. ^ Ansede M (2020-04-22). "El análisis genético sugiere que el coronavirus ya circulaba por España a mediados de febrero". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  8. ^ "Estado de alarma por crisis sanitaria COVID-19—Atención e informacion—Punto de Acceso General". administracion.gob.es.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Spain poised to tighten coronavirus lockdown after record daily toll". MSN. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  11. ^ Hedgecoe G (2020-03-26). "'Top of the curve'? Spain hopes Covid-19 peak reached as deaths pass 4,000". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2020-03-28.
  12. ^ "Coronavirus latest: Britain's Prince Charles tests positive for Covid-19". South China Morning Post. 2020-03-25. Retrieved 2020-03-25. 'Spain's coronavirus death toll overtook that of China on Wednesday, rising to 3,434 after 738 people died over the past 24 hours,' the government said.
  13. ^ Collman A. "Spain recorded 950 coronavirus deaths in a day, the highest single-day toll of any country". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  14. ^ White House: CDC 'let country down' on testing – COVID-19 updates Archived 2020-05-19 at the Wayback Machine 17 May 2020 Al Jazeera. Retrieved 30 May 2020
  15. ^ "Por qué nadie celebra el primer día sin muertos por coronavirus en España". El Español (in Spanish). 2020-06-02. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2020-06-22-elpais was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ "Coronavirus: Spain drives fears of European 'second wave'". BBC. 2020-07-25.
  18. ^ "Spain's Basque region admits to second wave of Covid-19". El País. 2020-08-06.
  19. ^ Badcock J (2020-08-14). "Spain shuts down nightlife amid fears of major second wave of coronavirus". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-11.
  20. ^ "Spain won't declare another national state of alarm, allows regions to lockdown if necessary". Euroactiv. 2020-08-26.
  21. ^ Lau H, Khosrawipour V, Kocbach P, Mikolajczyk A, Ichii H, Schubert J, et al. (March 2020). "Internationally lost COVID-19 cases". Journal of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infection = Wei Mian Yu Gan Ran Za Zhi. 53 (3): 454–458. doi:10.1016/j.jmii.2020.03.013. PMC 7102572. PMID 32205091.
  22. ^ Güell O, Sevillano E, Linde P (2020-03-18). "Lack of testing hampering Spain's efforts to slow coronavirus outbreak". El País. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  23. ^ "El 5% de la población española ha superado el Covid-19". Europa Press (in Spanish). 2020-05-13. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  24. ^ "Estudio de seroprevalencia: sólo el 5% de los españoles tiene anticuerpos frente al coronavirus". El Mundo (in Spanish). 2020-05-13. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  25. ^ Andrino B, Grasso D, Llaneras K (2020-06-03). "Afloran 12.000 nuevas muertes en los registros civiles: el exceso en la crisis del coronavirus se eleva hasta los 43.000 muertos". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  26. ^ "El estudio nacional de seroprevalencia concluye que solo un 5,2% de la población española tiene anticuerposs". RTVE (in Spanish). 2020-07-06. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  27. ^ Vardar S (2020-05-13). "Dos millones de españoles han estado en contacto con el nuevo coronavirus". ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  28. ^ Jones S, Willsher K, Grover N (2020-09-07). "Spain is first country in western Europe to record half a million Covid cases". The Guardian.
  29. ^ "ARCHIVED – Spain passes the 1 million coronavirus cases mark on October 21st". murciatoday.com. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  30. ^ Ritchie, Hannah; Mathieu, Edouard; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas; Appel, Cameron; Giattino, Charlie; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Hasell, Joe; Macdonald, Bobbie; Beltekian, Diana; Roser, Max (2020-03-05). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data.
  31. ^ "·CIS·Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas·Avance de resultados del estudio 3330 Barómetro de julio 2021". www.cis.es. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  32. ^ "Spain: WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard With Vaccination Data". covid19.who.int. Retrieved 2023-02-27.