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LATEST: Daily death toll in Spain drops to 59 with six regions registering no deaths at all

For the second day in a row, the overnight death toll from the coronavirus in Spain dropped below 100 fatalities.

Published: 18 May 2020 18:46 CEST

Data released by the Health Ministry on Monday afternoon showed 59 registered deaths from covid-19 with six regions recording no deaths at all.  

No new fatalities were recorded in Andalucía, Aragón, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Extremadura or Navarra.

While on Sunday the Health Ministry reported 87 coronavirus deaths over a 24-hour period, the first time in two months that the daily toll has dropped below 100.

The number of confirmed cases is now 231,606.

The positive news came as more provinces advanced  forward in Spain’s “plan to transition to a New Normal”.

 Some 70 percent of Spain is now in Phase 1 while Madrid, Barcelona and pockets of Castilla y Leon remain in Phase 0 although with a few restrictions lifted causing the stage to be dubbed “Phase 0.5.

Meanwhile three of the Canary Islands and Formentera in the Balearics advanced to Phase 2 in the de-escalation plan.

The official coronavirus death toll in Spain totals 27, 709.

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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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