22 Oct, 2020 @ 09:00
1 min read

Spain’s Andalucia has far more cases of COVID-19 than being reported due to its below average testing numbers, union warns

Spain Set To Increase Virus Tests As Emergency Period Ends

ANDALUCIA may have 30% more coronavirus infections than those being counted by the health ministry due to its lower testing rate.

Trade union CC.OO claimed in a report this week that the southernmost region needs to carry out 338.1 more tests per 100,000 inhabitants to reach the national average.

As the most populous region, counting 8.4 million residents, it would need to perform 28,508 more tests by PCR to be in line with the other regions.

The report analysed the tests and results in the week October 3 to 9.

In that period, 96,348 PCR tests were carried out in Andalucia, representing a rate of 1,145.06 per 100,000 inhabitants, resulting in 7,608 diagnoses.

Of concern to the CC.OO, is that in that week, the region recorded the third highest caseload after Madrid and Catalunya, despite lagging behind the rest of the regions in terms of PCR testing.

“It endorses the idea that the spread of the virus in Andalucia is actually well above the Spanish average, and if more PCRs had been done, it would have had to have taken more restrictive measures,” the union said.

On average, regions are performing 1,483.87 PCRs per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to Andalucia’s 1,145.06.

If Andalucia had performed the average amount of tests, the CC.OO calculates it would have clocked 2,251 more cases during October 3 to 9.

“Speaking in percentage terms, per week, an extra 29.58% of possible infections are not diagnosed in Andalucia,” the report warned.

It adds that the southernmost region needs to carry out an extra 30,000 tests per week to reach the national average of 126,000.

Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

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