The coronavirus pandemic is not over yet. This is what some epidemiological experts believe, such as Margarita del Val, a virologist at the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), who asserted this Wednesday at an event in Valencia that “we are in a difficult moment due to the lack of data.”

This new wave of infections worries the Spanish researcher, since the number of deaths continues to be high. According to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, 198 deaths and 52,112 new cases were recorded since last Friday. In addition, 267 more people were admitted to hospitals due to Covid-19, with a cumulative incidence in those over sixty years of age that stands at 846 positives.

In this regard, Margarita del Val has stated "that we do not know what will happen to the coronavirus" and the health system "has little strength left" after the work carried out during the last two years.

"We have to take advantage of the lessons learned to prepare ourselves better," said the virologist in the face of the possible arrival of new waves of infections, especially in winter times like next Christmas, where the positives increase exponentially due to greater social interaction without a mask. in closed and poorly ventilated spaces.

The CSIC researcher has participated in Valencia in the second round table on pandemic crisis management, in this case, from the perspective of the health and scientific sector. She was accompanied by Vanda Bositkova, a researcher at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (USA), and Simona Parvu. General Director of the Institute of Public Health of Romania, del Val has defended the "successful" vaccination campaign in Spain.

"Many people over the age of seventy and eighty have been vaccinated against the coronavirus and that is something that has not happened in many countries in Europe and the rest of the world," the health expert clarified.

Asked by the media before the appearance of eight suspected cases of monkeypox in Spain, Margarita del Val has clarified that, despite being called that, "it is transmitted by rodents", at the same time that she has pointed out that for a long time they existed rare cases among people who kept rats as pets.

However, he has pointed out that it can also be spread sexually, although he has stressed that in this case it is more difficult to detect. "It is a virus that causes large and conspicuous lesions on the skin," he explained about monkeypox, "a reasonably benign disease but bothersome due to the wounds it causes."

He also explained that against smallpox of human origin "we create a powerful immunity", while the lesions "are local and heal on their own". At the moment, as Fernando Simón has previously confirmed at this same summit, the possible cases detected in Spain are being studied at the National Center for Microbiology.