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Four full years after lockdown, and with the warm summer months and its mass of human movement just around the corner, coronavirus is experiencing something of a comeback in Spain and the Region of Murcia.

 

Figures show that Covid cases are on the rise, with a total of 667 new cases in one week. This is from a report by the Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System in Primary Care in the Region of Murcia, carried out by the Epidemiology Service of the Regional Ministry of Health.

 

Although the overall incidence rate of acute respiratory infections fell by 3% between June 3 and 9 (week 23 of the year), the Epidemiology Service says that “coronavirus infection has been on an upward trend since week 19 (May 13 to 19)”.

 

In the last week alone, infections have increased by 38.7% compared to the previous week, with 667 cases compared to 481 in the period from May 27 to June 2.

 

The cumulative incidence rate has also risen from 31.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 43.5.

 

Dr Enrique Bernal, head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Reina Sofia Hospital in Murcia city, explains that this virus does not behave seasonally, as is usually the case with other viruses like the flu.

 

“But it is clearly on the increase and it is the BA2.86 variant that is circulating the most, specifically the JN1 sublineage.”

 

His recommendation is, of course, for people to wear masks when they are in enclosed spaces where lots of people could gather, especially if you fall into one of the vulnerable, at-risk groups.

 

“Although the cases that are occurring are not serious and are experienced as a cold, more [hospital] admissions are being recorded,” he says.

 

At the Reina Sofia University Hospital in Murcia city, there are currently eight patients admitted to the Infectious Diseases ward with Covid-19, all of them aged between 70 and 88 years. Half of them were admitted in the last week.

 

Some autonomous communities are already taking action against this surge in coronavirus to cut it off at the root. In the neighbouring region of Andalucía, for example, which has an incidence rate of 131 cases per 100,000 people, the Regional Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs has urged people to “protect themselves and others” and have reminded people that the number of cases normally increases “when there are large concentrations of people”.