The Spanish Ministry of Health said on Monday it had registered 84,287 new COVID-19 cases and 455 deaths in the period between 2 p.m. Jan. 15 and 2 p.m. on Jan. 18.
The cumulative number of coronavirus infections in the country now stands at 2,336,451 and the number of deaths at 53,769. The country's 14-day incidence rate for 100,000 inhabitants has risen to 689 since the year-end holidays.
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At his daily press conference, Fernando Simon, director of the Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health, said that the "number of COVID-19 patients in hospital has risen significantly," with "32 percent of intensive care beds" occupied by coronavirus patients.
He also said a "peak" in cases as a result of the year-end holidays could arrive in the coming days and gave his tentative support to a possible decision by the Spanish government to authorize the country's 17 autonomous regions to bring forward the start of a night-time curfew to 8 p.m.
"Any measure that is taken to try and control the transmission of the virus will have some effect, although we should look to see if we have other options that do not cause as much disruption," he commented.
While the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in Spain and some other countries with the already-authorized COVID-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, 237 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 64 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Jan. 15.