In early spring Italy became the European epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. Spain has quickly followed Italy. As of  8^th April 2020 the total COVID-19 cases in Spain were 152,446 with the total COVID-19 deaths numbering 15,238 – the second highest in the world after Italy.  

Let’s take a closer look at a Spanish COVID-19 heat map. The heat map shows total deaths (as a proportion of the regional population) across Spain as at 8^th April 2020. The darker the red colour the higher the number of deaths (as a proportion of the population). Madrid in central Spain, has the darkest hue of red in the heat map because this is where the virus has caused the most damage. Noticeably the heat map shows a cluster around Mardrid similar to the cluster around Lombardia in Italy, however thankfully this cluster looks contained. Significantly the islands such as the Canary Islands in the south have a much paler hue of red showing a lower impact in comparison with central Spain. This is probably due to travel restrictions and social distancing across Spain.

Data Source: Spanish health ministry

Let’s take a closer look at the age-wise Spanish COVID-19 impact data. The data shows that 34% of the cases are for the 40-59 age group with a death rate of 1%. 1 in 3 of the cases in this age group require hospitalisation with only 1% of the cases requiring ICU. 

The 60-79 age group also has high incidence (33% of the total cases) with a high death rate of 6% (this is lower than the 14% death rate seen for this age group on Italy). However 2 in 3 cases in this age group require hospitalisation with 6% requiring ICU.

As expected the 80+ age group is the most at risk of death with a very high death rate (20%) with 20% of the cases requiring ICU. 15% of the cases are for the 20-39 age group (higher than Italy) with 1 in 5 requiring hospitalisation which is also worrying. No one is spared here either.

The New York experience shows that 1 in 5 of all the cases require hospitalisation on average. Worryingly the hospitalisation is almost double that in Spain.

Data Source: Spanish health ministry

The Spanish data again shows that males are significantly more at risk than females with a death rate which is almost double that of females (7% verus 4%). Overall the death rate is about 10% in Spain which is disturbingly high and worrying for Europe as a whole given the already high death rate in Italy. As in the case for Italy let us hope this rate moves down quickly as Spain increases its testing.

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