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COVID-19

Spain to extend lockdown but will ease restrictions for children

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced the nationwide coronavirus lockdown would be extended two weeks to May 9, hours after the official death toll passed 20,000.

Published: 19 April 2020 08:44 CEST
Spain to extend lockdown but will ease restrictions for children
Health workers acknowledge applause outside the Hospital de Barcelona. Photo: AFP

“We have done the hardest part through responsibility and social discipline… we are putting the most extreme moments behind us,” Sanchez said. But Spaniards must not jeopardise the fragile gains made so far with hasty decisions.

The restrictions currently in place would however be loosened slightly to allow children time outside from April 27, said Sanchez.

Until now only adults have been able to leave the house for specific reasons: to go to work, to go shopping for food or medicine, for a medical appointment or to walk the dog.

But there were growing calls to let children outside, as is permitted in most other countries observing a lockdown.

Spain, which has been under confinement since March 14, has recorded 20,043 deaths from the virus, the latest health ministry figures showed — the third-highest official toll after the United States and Italy.

Health officials nevertheless say Spain has passed the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak which killed up to 950 people a day on April 2, and pressure is slowly easing on hospitals.

The increase in infections has slowed and the latest daily death toll was 565 people, down from the figure on Friday. The number of people registered as cured has risen to nearly 75,000.

But with almost 200,000 reported cases of the virus, Sanchez warned the country that an end to one of Europe's toughest confinements would be “prudent and progressive”.

And he warned: “If necessary, we will reinforce protective measures again.”
 
Disputed figures
 
But the official toll, which covers only people who tested positive for the virus in Spain, has been contested in some regions.
 
Officials say thousands more people have died after showing symptoms of the disease without actually being tested, because health services do not have enough of them.
 
Catalonia has reported that more than 7,800 people have died while the national toll for the region referred Saturday to more than 3,800.
 
 
Fernando Simon, the health ministry's emergencies coordinator, noted during a daily press briefing Saturday that owing to the strict virus confinement measures, “the current level of transmission is much lower.”
 
The closely-followed rate now indicates that each person infected with  COVID-19 in Spain is passing it on to fewer than one other person, which means the disease is no longer spreading.
 
It was as high as one to three when the Spanish lockdown began.
 
The government has nonetheless indicated that some economic sectors might not rebound before the end of the year, with tourism the main question mark at the moment.
 
Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida told radio Onda Cero Saturday that no “mass gatherings” such as concerts or sports events would be held in Spain this summer.

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

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People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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