In the context of a fresh wave, called as the eighth wave, the toll of coronavirus-infected people hospitalized climbed steadily in recent weeks, from 15,000 hospitalizations at the early-October to 20,110 today.

However, the ICU case toll did not grow at the same rate, a scenario attributed to the fact that the present rise in infections is not due to a new variant or subvariant of Covid-19.

At the beginning of October, local health authorities reported 843 seriously-ill compared to 1,039 reported on Thursday.

Regarding infection rate, the health agency confirmed as many as 56,793 in the last 24 hours, and an incidence rate of 576 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants.

The official source informed of 69 new deaths, bringing total to 156,256 since March 2020.

pll/lam/wmr