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COVID-19

Downward trend in deaths continues in Spain with 281 new fatalities

Spain's death toll continued on a downward trend on Friday as the government reported 281 deaths in the past 24 hours, the lowest since March 20th.

Published: 1 May 2020 14:51 CEST
Downward trend in deaths continues in Spain with 281 new fatalities
Photo: AFP

With Thursday's figures, Spain's total death toll from the coronavirus now stands at 24,824. 

which has registered a total of 215,216 confirmed cases, has suffered the fourth most fatalities in the world behind only the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom.

For six days in succession, the toll has hovered around 300 daily deaths, far from the peak of 950 deaths in 24 hours recorded in early April.

Some 2,628 others were declared cured, bringing the total to 114,678.

As a further sign of the tension easing, Madrid on Friday closed the immense field hospital installed at the end of March in the exhibition pavilions of the trade fair.

The facilities will remain in place, however, in case there is a new wave of contagion.

Spain will further ease strict lockdown measures this weekend, allowing individuals to leave the house for sports activities.

The move follows an easing of restrictions last weekend when children were allowed out of the house for the first time since March 14.

But kids are only allowed our during certain hours of the day to avoid overcrowding.

Children and the elderly are also not allowed to go out at the same time in a bid to keep them apart.

This easing occurs after seven weeks of severe confinement during which the Spanish could only leave thee house if they could not work from home, to go to the supermarket, the pharmacy or briefly take out the dog.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that the beginning of the deconfinement could begin from May 11 and spread over several phases until the end of June, if conditions allowed.

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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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