Two health workers attend to a patient in the ICU of the Girona hospital. /
Two out of every 1,000 Spaniards have died from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, a proportion surpassed only by Poland and Italy
Spain has been one of the European countries hardest hit by covid-19, with more than 100,000 deaths registered in the official accounts of the Ministry of Health, a symbolic figure that was reached last Tuesday. Two years after the start of the pandemic, it is the third State among the large European Union with the highest proportion of deaths: 212 Spaniards for every 100,000 Spaniards have died from this disease, or what is the same, two for every thousand . Only Poland and Italy have higher rates, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
The analysis of mortality reports from this university shows how the impact of covid has changed between countries. After the first two waves, in December 2020, Spain reached 50,000 total deaths and ranked tenth in the world in the death/population ratio, behind Belgium, San Marino, Slovenia, Italy, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Peru , Andorra and Montenegro. Now, it has fallen to 36th place, surpassed by almost all the countries of Eastern Europe and by several Latin American countries. Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Colombia or Mexico now have more deaths in proportion to their inhabitants than Spain, in a list headed by Peru, with 648 deaths.
There are two reasons that have made Spain improve its position on the world list. In many parts of the world, the subsequent waves have been even more severe than here, where the greatest tragedy occurred early in the pandemic. But above all, the difference has been in the vaccination. With an enormous acceptance of the vaccines and a rate of people with a complete regimen above 91%, the compounds have saved tens of thousands of lives in Spain, while the denialism of its citizens or the impossibility of accessing the vaccines have limited protection in other countries.
Poland, with 294 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, exemplifies the problems of Eastern European countries. They passed the first waves of the virus relatively unscathed, but suffered the punishment later. With barely 60% of its population vaccinated, the Poles have not managed to stop the last waves of covid and are the country of the European Union, among the most populous, with the most deaths per number of residents. Behind them, in second place, is Italy, although its case is more similar to that of Spain. The first wave, in the spring of 2020, caused enormous damage, but the arrival of the vaccines (80% of Italians have the complete guideline) has since contained the deaths, although the country is still the second among the powers of the Union with the highest proportion of deaths.
From there, of the 27 member countries of the EU, behind Spain is France, with 208 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, Portugal, with 205; Sweden, with 169; Germany, with 148; and the Netherlands, with 128. Among those that do not belong to the European Union, some of those that register higher rates than those of Spain are the United States, with a ratio of 291 deaths; Argentina, with 281; Ukraine, with 253; Mexico, with 249; United Kingdom, with 243; Russia, with 240; and Chile, with 225.
In total numbers, Spain became the sixteenth country in the world on Tuesday to reach 100,000 deaths from covid-19. The one that has reported the highest number of deaths is the United States, with 956,261, followed by Brazil (650,824), India (514,589), Russia (346,967) and Mexico (318,835). Above 100,000 deaths are also the United Kingdom, Italy, Indonesia, France, Colombia, Iran, Argentina, Germany and Poland. China, the country in which the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes covid-19, originated, has only computed 6,002 deaths.