Spain reported on Tuesday a one-day increase in 194 new diagnosed coronavirus infections from the previous day.
Remember: The Spanish Ministry of Health instituted a new national reporting and tracking system for coronavirus cases two weeks ago, which has resulted in a recalculation of infections and deaths. The total number of cumulative infections confirmed by PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests since the start of the pandemic now stands at more than 236,000, according to data from the ministry.
What changed: Under the new system, the Spanish health authorities indicate that infections are now calculated on the day of diagnosis - not the day they are reported, which has caused the figures to fluctuate this week. Some Spanish media ironically call it "the data dance".
In an example of the new reports, an additional 35 new deaths were added to the figures released on Tuesday, however, these deaths occurred in the past week, according to the country's health ministry.
The latest death toll from Spain of at least 27,117 is lower than what was previously reported by the Ministry of Health. In fact, the ministry recalculated the overall figure on Monday and nearly 2,000 deaths were suddenly removed from the count.
A senior Spanish health official, Dr. Fernando Simón, said on Monday that the cases removed from the total were not deaths confirmed by Covid-19 and therefore did not meet the updated criteria of the Ministry of Health to be included in the total number.
Simón added that the purpose of the revised report "is to assess the pace of the epidemic in the past seven days", so that medical personnel across the country can have more recent data in real time.
The Ministry of Health website indicates that the gap between previously reported figures and those reported now may persist for several days, due to a "new strategy for diagnosing, monitoring and controlling the phase of transition from the Covid-19 "pandemic.
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