The most vaccinated country in Europe, Spain escapes (for now) the 5th wave of Covid-19 – teller report

It is the European champion of vaccination: with the highest rate of the major European countries, Spain is spared from the resumption of contaminations on the continent. However, it is not immune to a rebound in the epidemic, warn experts.

The country had been traumatized by the first wave of spring 2020, during which the country experienced more than 950 additional deaths per million population in March and June compared to the average of the previous five years according to the OECD. Today, Spain is the country where the infection rate is one of the lowest in Europe with 63 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days.

A level twice as high in Italy, about six times as high in Germany, and twelve times as high in Great Britain, according to a report established by AFP on the basis of official figures.

This situation “positive” was greeted Wednesday in Parliament by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who said “have more than one reason for satisfaction in view of what is happening” in neighboring countries. It must be said that in Spain the population was much less reluctant to be vaccinated than elsewhere in Europe: 79% of inhabitants are fully vaccinated, against 67% in Great Britain and Germany.

And almost all of the over 70s (99%) are, a rate higher than in France or Italy, thanks to a vaccination campaign that strictly followed the age pyramid. “This prioritization resulted in slowness at start-up but ultimately had better results in the long term”, explains to AFP Iñaki Comas, researcher at the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia.

In addition, the maintenance of certain barrier gestures has helped to limit contamination. If there have been no restrictions on the number of people allowed to meet for a month and nightlife has resumed, masks remain mandatory indoors. The milder climate, which still allows Spaniards to see each other outside or eat on the terrace, has also played a role, he adds.

But experts warn of a restart of contaminations due to the onset of cold and bad weather, as well as the decrease in the effectiveness of the protection conferred by vaccines over time and the risks posed by new ones. variants. “These three factors are the perfect breeding ground for the coronavirus”, explains Iñaki Comas, according to whom Spain “enters a critical phase”.

“We know how the virus is transmitted, abounds Cesar Carballo, emergency physician at Ramon y Cajal hospital in Madrid. When the cold comes and night falls earlier, we tend to go inside and that’s where the virus is spreading. ” And, even if the country has one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe, epidemiologists refuse to talk about collective immunity because it cannot be achieved with vaccines that do not prevent contagions.

According to the Seattle-based Institute for Health Data and Assessments (IHME), in the northwestern United States, Spain is expected to see its number of cases increase from mid-November, skyrocketing in December. before reaching its peak at the end of the year. But even though “infection rates are high”, “if people are vaccinated they will not get seriously ill”, reassures Iñaki Comas.