At Son Llàtzer Hospital in Palma on Friday, Spain's health minister, Carolina Darias, said that "the data indicate that we have bent the curve" of the current wave of the virus. "Day by day the data consolidate a decrease, not only in the cumulative incidence but also in hospitalisations and ICU admissions." In the Balearics, however, there has as yet not been the same drop in hospital and ICU admissions, even if the cumulative incidence has been falling.
Darias compared the current wave with the third, which occurred a year ago now and was the most serious of those experienced. "The incidence has multiplied by seven, but the severity data are much lower." Contributory factors have been the high rate of vaccination and the Omicron variant. While more contagious, it has also been milder.
Spain, she added, is already working on the transition from pandemic to endemic or to what has been described as treating Covid like flu.