The second part of a government study into Spain’s coronavirus pandemic has revealed that just 5.2 percent of the general population are now immune against the virus. The Instituto de Salud Carlos III public health centre announced the results after testing 64,564 people between 18th May and 1st June.
The first part of the study, which began on 27th April, fund that just 5 percent of the population carried specific antibodies that fight against the coronavirus as part of the body’s immune system. The institute’s director, Raquel Yotti, said the low figures eant Spain has not yet achieved ‘herd immunity’ against coronavirus.
The type of study that researches immunity in a population is called seroprevalence, and is higher than Spain’s official confirmed cases – PCR-confirmed patients currently make up 0.01perent of the population.
Results also confirmed that provinces in central Spain have been the worst-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Madrid, Segovia, Guadalajara and Albacete showed seroprevalence levels twice as high as the national average of 5.2 percent, whilst Cuenca and Soria levels were triple the coverage. In addition, Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Barcelona, Navarra, Teruel and Alava had seroprevalence levels at between 5-10 percent.
At the other end of the scale Girona, Lleida, Zaragoza, Huesca, Alicante, Caceres, Malaga, Granada, Jaen, Castellon and Alicante showed seroprevalence levels between 3 percent and 5 percent, whilst other regions such as Huelva and Asturias didn’t reach 2 percent.