The Minister of Social Security and Inclusion, José Luis Escrivá, has provided an approximation to the latest figures for sick leave by covid and says that the sixth wave has caused “A level of casualties around 10% of all members”, although it did not provide the specific figure, as did not the team of the ministry, but taking into account that there are 19.8 million Social Security affiliates, 10% would assume that almost 2 million people has suffered a coronavirus-induced drop in recent weeks.
The latest data available so far, provided by the ministry in early January, reflected 240,011 casualties started in the first 23 days of December.
Escrivá added that the latest figures show that the wave is subsiding: «The data of the last few days show that we have already reached the maximum levels and that we are now at the bottom and, due to the experience of the previous waves, once the curve is reversed, the recovery process arrives very quickly of activity ».
Employment recovery
The Minister of Inclusion made the announcement in Asturias, during one of the events he has starred in as part of a working visit to Oviedo in which he took part in an informative breakfast, visited two Social Security offices and met with the President of the Principality. As part of this visit, he emphasized that Asturias, like Spain as a whole, has already regained pre-pandemic employment levels.
“The evolution of employment throughout the country has been extraordinary,” added Escrivá. who argued that, according to provisional data, the increase in membership in January will be about 70,000 people in Spain, significantly above the usual monthly average (40,000). According to the Minister, these results are the result of the flexibility policies that have been deployed to protect employment, mainly ERTOs and new benefits for the self-employed.