New Covid-19 cases and related deaths fall in Andalucía

Those hospitalised with the virus may have gone up slightly on Monday, but numbers had been falling for the five previous days - a relief to local healthworkers concerned by plans to bring patients from other areas if hospital patients continued to rise

europa press / ALBERTO GÓMEZ

Monday, 16 November 2020, 15:36

The Andalusian regional Health ministry announced a drop in both new coronavirus cases and related deaths in the previous 24 hours on Monday.

Twenty-two people were announced to have died on Monday having contracted the virus, much lower than the pandemic record of 95 on 10 November, while 2,127 people tested positive for Covid-19 by PCR and antigen tests - 1,466 fewer than on Sunday.

The number of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 in Andalucía, however, rose again on Monday, having fallen for five consecutive days.

On Monday, there were 3,269 in the region's hospitals (505 of whom are in ICU), up from 3,179 on Sunday.

Contingency plans

The past week's hospitalisation figures overall come as a brief respite for many local healthcare workers who had been expressing their unease at plans announced last week to bring Covid-19 patients to Malaga province's hospitals from other areas of Andalucía if cases continued to rise. However, Andalucía is still some distance from the 4,500 hospital cases required for the extra emergency plans to kick in.

Malaga province is one of the areas with most beds free but local staff don't want to think about transfers. "We're worn out," said one doctor at Malaga's Hospital Clínico.

Unions have asked what extra staff would be brought in to cope.

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