Covid moves Spain into epidemic phase before flu has even started

If you’ve had a scratchy throat or a cough that won’t shift this week, you’re far from alone. Spain’s respiratory infections have crossed the epidemic threshold, yet hospitals are barely feeling it and flu, the usual culprit, hasn’t even got going. 

Covid is behind the jump, not flu

Spain’s respiratory infections have crossed the epidemic threshold, and Covid is almost entirely responsible. The country’s respiratory virus surveillance system (SiVIRA), run by the Carlos III Health Institute, counted 478.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the week from Monday September 21 to Sunday September 27, up from 373 the week before. 

The breakdown shows who’s to blame. Of the samples tested at GP surgeries, 27.2 per cent came back positive for Covid, compared with 4.1 per cent for flu and just 0.2 per cent for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus, a winter bug that hits babies hardest). Estimated Covid cases rose to 119.2 per 100,000, while flu fell to 12. However, the official intensity level is still rated ‘low’.

Hospitals aren’t filling up yet

There’s some reassurance in the hospital figures, though. Admissions for severe acute respiratory infection held almost steady at 9.2 per 100,000 people, against 9.0 the week before.

Covid is nudging upwards inside hospitals all the same. It was found in 21 per cent of the samples tested in hospital patients, up from 15.3 per cent, while the hospitalisation rate for Covid rose to 1.7 per 100,000 from 1.1.

Parents may want to keep an eye on the youngest children, too. Bronchitis and bronchiolitis (chest infections that inflame the airways) in under-fives almost doubled in a week, from 104.3 to 194.3 cases per 100,000.

Flu hasn’t arrived, but the jabs have

Flu is the missing piece. Its rate is still below the epidemic threshold, and last winter’s flu epidemic only ran from late November to mid-January. 

That gives people a window to get protected. The national guidance says the flu campaign should start from the last week of September and run through October, with jabs recommended for over-60s, children from six months to four years old, pregnant women, people with long-term health conditions and health and social care staff. Flu and Covid vaccines can be given together.

Dates vary by region though. Cataluña starts on Monday October 5 after a delay caused by a change to the flu strains, with over-80s, pregnant women, health staff and under-fives first, and over-60s from Monday October 26.

Now, you might be thinking ‘it’s only October, surely there’s no rush?’ However, with Covid already leading the way, it’s worth ringing your local health centre to ask when your regional campaign begins and whether you can have both jabs in one appointment.