“We still do not know the exact proportion of the population that needs to be immune to achieve herd immunity to Covid-19, as we need to better understand the duration and protection of transmission generated by both vaccination and coronavirus,” he explains Jesús Rodríguez Baño, head of infectious diseases at the Virgen de la Macarena Hospital in Seville.
“However,” he adds, “the situation in Spain may give some clues: after leaving behind most of the control measures in the population, the contagion rate (and especially the rate of hospital admissions) has been decreasing, and this is the opposite of what happened in previous waves; the only plausible explanation is the country’s very high vaccination rate. “
More than 80% of the population is vaccinated in Spain, a rate that is similar in the 12-19 age group.
The cumulative rate of new infections in 14 days was 43 per 100,000 population as of October 21, two-thirds less than in September.
In the youth group, the rate fell from 154 to 30 per 100,000 inhabitants during the same month.
In the United Kingdom, for example, which lifted all restrictions in July 2021, the cumulative incidence is 753 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, around 20 times that of Spain, and 68% of its population is vaccinated.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Spain was one of the countries most affected by the coronavirus, which led the government of the socialist Pedro Sánchez to introduce a harsh confinement from March 14, 2020 until June, a period in which it was only possible to go out to the street to buy food and medicine, and for just cause.
Since then, the country has fared better than many of its European neighbors, notes The Lancet.
The measures were relaxed in June 2020, allowing walks and outdoor sports, as well as the opening of bars and restaurants and leisure activities, despite the increase in coronavirus cases in the winter 2020-21.
“While the other largest countries in Europe, such as the United Kingdom, Italy, France and even Germany, returned to harsher confinements, the Spanish were able to maintain parts of normalcy, without universal mandates to stay at home”adds the magazine.
Currently the mask is mandatory in closed spaces and when the interpersonal distance is less than two meters. At the beginning of 2021 Spain began, like the rest of the European Union (EU), the vaccination campaign at a slow pace, but has now overtaken countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States.
On the other hand, the third dose is already being administered in high-risk groups in Spain.
Source From: Ambito
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