The share of the Spanish population that has contracted coronavirus has nearly doubled in the second wave of pandemic, results from the latest stage of a nationwide antibody study show.
Almost 10 per cent, or about 4.7 million people, are now estimated to have caught the virus, up from 5 per cent in July.
More than 51,400 people were tested and surveyed across Spain in the second half of November for the prevalence study, which suggests the infections by far exceed the number of confirmed cases in Spain, of just over 1.75 million.
“One in ten people living in Spain would have been infected ... half during the first wave and the other half during this second epidemic wave,” said Raquel Yotti, director of Spain's Carlos III Health Institute, which co-led the study.
Prevalence in Madrid was the highest of all Spanish regions, with 18.6 per cent of the population testing positive for Covid-19 antibodies.
Previous results of the study that were published in July after testing nearly 70,000 people in April-June, showed a prevalence rate of just over 5 per cent.
Spain has been one of Europe's hardest-hit countries by the pandemic, both in terms of contagion and the economic impact. Over 48,000 people have died from the coronavirus.
The government decided a second state of emergency in October with new restrictions such as night-time curfews to stem resurgent infections, which helped to reduce new cases to less than 200 per 100,000 people this month.
