Spain enters into extreme risk due to the sixth wave of the pandemic

USPA NEWS - Spain has been at extreme risk from coronavirus since last weekend. The Omicron variant, which, according to experts, has a contagion capacity and a speed of spread much higher than those of other variants, has shot up the infection figures in Spain a few days before Christmas Eve.

Spain began Christmas week with 609 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a figure that, according to Spanish health authorities, puts the country at extreme risk. Omicron has not yet been revealed as a more lethal variant than previous ones, but hospitals are beginning to receive more patients and spokepersons of some hospital centers acknowledge to USPA News that the collapse of the hospitals is expected after the Christmas holidays.

The Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, summoned the regional presidents to a meeting to be held this Wednesday, 48 hours before Christmas Eve, to agree on measures to help contain the spread of the virus. With almost 80 percent of the Spanish population over 5 years of age vaccinated with the full schedule against the first version of the coronavirus, health authorities are now inoculating a third dose of the vaccine to all those over 40 years of age and to health personnel. But the Omicron variant has shown that it can infect vaccinated people and, on the eve of Christmas, the danger of the epidemic getting out of control is great.

Meanwhile, a recent study revealed that 62 percent of Spaniards admit to suffering from mental disorders as a result of the pandemic. The months of confinement, the successive waves of infections and the frustration of returning to extreme risk after believing that they were protected by vaccines and relaxing customs, has taken a toll on the mental health of Spaniards, according to experts. And the health workers who work on the front lines against the coronavirus confirm it: "people are crazy," explains to USPA News Marian Rivera, nurse at the San Pedro hospital in Logrono (northern Spain), attached to the PCR testing service. In a city of just over 160,000 inhabitants, the health center carried out 1,000 tests in a single day last week.

La Rioja is one of the six Spanish regions with the worst records in this sixth wave of the pandemic. Basque Country, Navarra, Aragon, Madrid and Catalonia are the other five. The low temperatures that are registered in the Northern half of Spain, where the six mentioned regions are located, do not help to contain the pandemic either. And this situation is beginning to have consequences for the economy of various sectors. December is traditionally a good month for tourism, hospitality and shopping. However, fear of the disease and fear of new restrictions has led to an avalanche of cancellations at restaurants and hotels across Spain, as well as on travel.