The number of positive cases has crept up again above one thousand (1,008) in Andalusia as the incidence rate climbs slowly to 156,54 per 100,000 inhabitants. It is important to note that the governments’ goal was for the incident rate to move below 25 (new normal) or below 50 (low risk) and that anything above 150 is considered high risk.

Huelva has also seen an increase in hospitalizations up eleven from yesterday to 61 while intensive care numbers remain stable at three. There are currently 1,218 patients in Andalusian hospitals with Covid-19 of which 282 are in intensive care.

Huelva is also experiencing an increase in incidence with numbers growing from 128.2 to 135.4 today. There were 73 new cases in Huelva today with Huelva Capital (14) leading the way followed by Bonares (10) and Almonte 8. Ayamonte had one new case today and the incidence rate here is now down to 56.9.

Huelva had no new admittances to intensive care today and there were no new deaths reported while 239 were declared cured.

This afternoon, the President of Spain, Pedro Sanchez confirmed that he has no intention of extending the state of alarm beyond the 9th of May and according to the governments calculation 70% of the population will be vaccinated by the end of August.

There are currently 2.8 million vaccinated in Spain and according to the government they will reach over 33 million by August. This will involve a serious change in the speed of vaccinations. It has taken three months to get to almost three million and I do understand that over 9.6 million have the first jab but without quadrupling the vaccination numbers in the coming months they will not reach their goal.

In Spain there have been 8,743,694 vaccines administered since the 27th Dec 2020 and 2,852,806 people have been fully vaccinated. Andalusia leads the way both in distribution of the jab (1,648,320) and people who have complete the vaccination cycle 522,041.

The majority of the vaccines distributed are Pfizer/BioNtech 6,470,295 followed by AstraZeneca/Oxford 2,175,700 and finally Moderna 1,044,000. With the time between the first and second jab for AstraZeneca jab being 10-12 only 72 people have completed the cycle.

Also the Janssen single jab vaccine is expected to be approved in the second half of April and Curevac the German vaccine with base in Netherlands is expected to be approved after Janssen.

The Portuguese minister for interior, Eduardo Cabrita, in a press conference today would not be drawn on a date when the border with Spain will be opened up. Curretnly the Spansih government have said that until April 16th at least the borders will be closed. Portugal reviews the situation every fortnight and minister Cabrita did say that the borders with Spain will only be closed while it is strictly necessary. All attention will be on the review mid -April.