Primary-Care COVID-19 Positivity in Spain Hits 27.2 Percent as Week 39 Cases Climb
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Oct 07, 2026 1 hour, 5 minutes ago
Spain’s national respiratory surveillance recorded a further rise in COVID-19 in the last full week of September, with primary-care positivity above 27 percent and estimated incidence near 120 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
COVID-19 Infectiosn are rising exponetially across Spain
Thailand Medical News is drawing these figures from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III SiVIRA bulletin for week 39 of 2026, covering 21–27 September. The report puts SARS-CoV-2 positivity in primary-care respiratory samples at 27.2 percent, up from 26.8 percent the week before. The COVID-19 proxy incidence, which multiplies the acute respiratory infection rate by positivity, reached 119.2 cases per 100,000, compared with 92.6 a week earlier. Syndromic COVID-19 consultations rose to 29.4 per 100,000 from 21.6.
Positivity stays high while flu stays low
COVID-19 accounted for the largest share of positive primary-care samples in the week. Influenza positivity fell to 4.1 percent from 8.2 percent, and RSV positivity was 0.2 percent. The influenza proxy incidence was 12 cases per 100,000.
Influenza syndrome remained below the epidemic threshold at 16.9 cases per 100,000.
All acute respiratory infections moved above the national epidemic threshold, but at low intensity. The national rate was 478.2 cases per 100,000, up from 373 the previous week. Bronchitis and bronchiolitis in children under five rose to 194.3 per 100,000 from 104.3. ISCIII describes the national rates as weighted averages and warns that regional systems differ, so community figures are not directly comparable with one another.
The week before had already shown a sharp step up. In week 38, 14–20 September, primary-care SARS-CoV-2 positivity was 25.8 percent and the COVID proxy was 85 per 100,000, up from 50.4. Week 39 extended the rise rather than reversing it.
Hospital samples turn higher
Hospital indicators also moved up in week 39, after a dip the week before.
Admissions for severe acute respiratory infection were 9.2 per 100,000, against 9 previously. Among those admissions, SARS-CoV-2 positivity reached 21 percent, up from 15.3 percent. The COVID hospitalization proxy was 1.7 per 100,000, up from 1.1. Influenza hospital positivity fell to 7.1 percent, and the influenza hospitalization proxy was 0.6 per 100,000.
In week 38 the COVID hospitalization proxy had fallen from 1.2 to 0.8, and hospital SARS-CoV-2 positivity had fallen from 15.5 percent to 13.8 percent. The week 39 file shows that easing did not hold.
Severity figures in the bulletin are cumulative from the start of the season in week 40 of 2025, not a count for this week alone. Among hospitalized COVID patients in that period, 22.5 percent developed pneumonia, 4.3 percent were admitted to intensive care, and lethality was 8.7 percent. The matching influenza figures were 27.3 percent pneumonia, 4.7 percent ICU admission and 7.3 percent lethality. The absolute hospitalization rate remains low by the standards of 2020–2022. The week-on-week direction in the latest bulletin is upward.
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A seasonal rise, not a severity alert
The week 39 report does not link the increase to a newly severe variant, and it does not describe hospitals as overwhelmed. It records circulation and proxy rates. Earlier SiVIRA files this season had listed XFG as the largest share of characterized viruses, with other lineages present at lower levels. The week 39 summary does not add a finding that a new sublineage is driving worse disease.
All-cause mortality estimates from the MoMo model for the same week put observed deaths at 8,137 against 7,705 expected. That gap is not a COVID death toll. Proxy incidence is also an estimate from consultation rates and test positivity, not a census of every infection.
National surveillance through the end of September shows COVID-19 as the main respiratory virus in both primary care and hospital sentinel samples, with positivity and estimated incidence still climbing and hospital proxies higher than the week before, while remaining far below earlier pandemic peaks.
The next SiVIRA release will show whether week 39 marked a further step up or a near-term high.
Reference:
https://docsivira.isciii.es/Informe_semanal_SiVIRA_202639.html
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https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
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