There were many consultations and, in the published tallies, few injuries. According to the round-up of news-agency reports published by the newspaper Diario de León, in the first 48 hours Spain’s autonomous regions treated more than a thousand people, most of them for eye discomfort after looking at the eclipse, generally mild, though some also for dizziness and heatstroke. Injuries were rarely mentioned: in La Rioja, four of the twenty people who went to the Hospital San Pedro with eye discomfort had injuries consistent with exposure. We have found no report from the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology and no national count of confirmed retinopathies.
What the regions reported
These are figures for the first two days, and each region counted in its own way: some are eye emergencies, others all eclipse-related care.
| Region | What was reported | Who said it |
|---|---|---|
| Catalonia | almost 450 ophthalmological emergencies in two days, between 2% and 3% of hospital emergency activity | the Catalan Health Department (Departament de Salut), according to the newspaper Ara |
| Madrid | 340 cases of eclipse-related care, mainly dizziness, discomfort and eye problems, and questions | the Madrid regional Health Department (Consejería de Sanidad) |
| Basque Country | 129 people with eye complaints with mild symptoms | Osakidetza, the Basque health service |
| Valencia region | 147 ophthalmological consultations | the news-agency round-up |
| Andalusia | 44 visits to ophthalmology emergency departments, none serious or requiring admission | the news-agency round-up |
| Murcia | 32 people with eye problems, none serious | the Murcia Health Service, on severity |
| Asturias | 18 primary-care visits that could be related to the eclipse, out of 64 patients who came in about their eyes | the regional health minister |
| Balearic Islands | about 20 people treated for eye injuries | the news-agency round-up |
| La Rioja | 20 people at the Hospital San Pedro with eye discomfort; 4 with injuries consistent with exposure | the news-agency round-up |
In Navarre seven ophthalmology cases were counted and in Extremadura, three patients with visual disturbances. The Canary Islands had not yet given figures when the round-up was published.
Almost all mild
The head of the Emergency section at Hospital Universitario Donostia, Oihana Ormazabal, spoke of “mild conditions” and said there was “no serious injury that can be attributed to the eclipse”. The Murcia Health Service specified that no case needed admission or surgery. In Catalonia, according to Ara, eye consultations went up, but the data did not point to a wave of serious injuries.
Those numbers may fall short, because damage to the retina takes time to show. The Catalan Health Department warned that some symptoms can appear hours or days after looking at the eclipse, and the director of Healthcare at IBSalut, the Balearic health service, Hermann Ribera, did not rule out more consultations because the injuries start to develop after 24 to 48 hours. We have found no tally covering anything after those two days.
If you notice something after an eclipse, Spain’s Ministry of Health recommends going to a hospital with an ophthalmology department for an early assessment. The Catalan health authorities listed difficulty focusing, spots in the field of vision and blurred vision as warning signs. What other symptoms ophthalmologists describe and why the retina doesn’t hurt, in what happens if you look at the eclipse without glasses (in Spanish).
What happened at other eclipses
Other eclipses also brought many consultations and few permanent injuries, although there were some. After the 1999 eclipse, the emergency department of the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin saw 139 people worried about their eyesight between 11 and 18 August; 72 needed follow-up and 8 had permanent burns on the retina, according to the Irish College of Ophthalmologists.
In Spain there is at least one published case series after the annular eclipse of October 2005, the one we cover in the last eclipses in Spain. The ophthalmology department of the Hospital Príncipe de Asturias, in Alcalá de Henares, described in the Archivos de la Sociedad Española de Oftalmología, the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology’s journal, three patients who came in after the eclipse with lesions in the fovea and visual-field defects. The changes in the macula and the symptoms are usually reversible, they explained, but defects and scotomas can remain.
What changes on 2 August 2027
This time the eclipse is mid-morning, with the Sun high: between 34.5° and 47.6° on the mainland, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, towards the east-south-east (where to look during the eclipse). The partial phase lasts more than two hours throughout Spain, and totality only reaches 105 municipalities in the south. Outside the path there is not a moment without glasses, even if 99.9% of the Sun is covered, as in Almería; inside it, only between the last flash and the first (when to take off your eclipse glasses in totality).
With the Sun in view for longer, there is more temptation to stare at it; we explain this in why you cannot look at the Sun during an eclipse. How long to look through glasses, in how long can you look through eclipse glasses; what Spain’s Health Ministry, the IGN (Spain’s National Geographic Institute), Civil Protection and the DGT, Spain’s traffic authority, asked for, in official eclipse advice in Spain, and how to check a pair of glasses, in our glasses guide.
Sources: Diario de León (agencias) — Más de mil personas atendidas en las primeras 48 horas tras el eclipse en España (in Spanish: the region-by-region round-up, with who gave each figure; Donostia, the Murcia Health Service and IBSalut); Ara — Health attends 450 ophthalmological emergencies due to the eclipse (Catalonia: almost 450 ophthalmological emergencies in two days, 2-3% of emergencies, no wave of serious injuries, symptoms that can take hours or days); Ministerio de Sanidad — Evaluación rápida de riesgo del Trío de Eclipses (Spain’s Ministry of Health, in Spanish: with symptoms, a hospital with ophthalmology); Irish College of Ophthalmologists — Doctors report on number of people with eye concerns at hospital A&E following 1999 Eclipse (139 people, 72 followed up, 8 with permanent damage); Portal científico de la Universidad de Alcalá — Retinopatía por eclipse: a propósito de tres casos (in Spanish: Archivos de la Sociedad Española de Oftalmología, 2007: three patients after the October 2005 eclipse); altitude and direction of the Sun, municipalities with totality and percentages: eclipseando data (skyfield + DE440s engine) and the IGN’s verdict.
If you would like something to keep from the eclipse, the shop prints T-shirts, mugs and posters with the name of your town, the time of its maximum and its seconds of totality. See the merchandise →
Remember: never look at the Sun without proper eye protection (filters made to EN ISO 12312-2). The official reference for safe viewing in Spain is the IGN (in Spanish): eclipses.ign.es.