Coronavirus: Spain records over 1,000 dead and expects the worst

The Spanish government announced on Friday, 20, that 1,002 people died as a result of  Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus . The total number of diagnosed cases reached 19,980 - of which 1,141 are hospitalized in serious condition. The spread of the virus across the country worries the authoWith the increase in the number of cases, Spain has become the second most affected country in Europe. Third comes Germany, which, despite having diagnosed more than 8,000 cases of the virus, registered only 13 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) . Asked by reporters why Germany's death rate is so low, Spaniard Fernando Simón replied: “I can't explain it”.

"We are making an effort to try to understand what is going on in Germany," he said. "It is a difficult situation to understand, not only for us, but globally", he reiterated.  The low mortality rate in Germany, where the elderly population is also significant, contrasts with that registered in Spain, where it already exceeds 5%, and in Italy, above 8%.

The new coronavirus pandemic began in late 2019 in Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province. In total, Covid-19  infected more than 200,000 people worldwide and killed about 10,000 of them. In Brazil, there are 651 confirmed cases of the disease and seven deaths.rities, who fear that there are not enough beds to treat the sick.

While the coronavirus spreads throughout Europe, with Italy being the epicenter of the continent, the Spanish authorities are unable to envision a positive scenario for the coming weeks. As in Italy, Spain has a significant elderly population, the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. "The worst days are coming," said Health Minister Salvador Illa, as he released the new figures this Friday. Illa admitted that he does not know whether the emergency measures taken by the government will be sufficient to stem the spread of the disease.

The spread of the virus is beginning to raise doubts as to whether the Spanish health system will be able to withstand an increasing number of infected people. The Spanish government's usage rules for ICUs remain the same. That is, the patient's probability of cure regardless of his age is taken into account. On Friday, however, the director of the Ministry of Health's Emergency Coordination Center, Fernando Simón, said that when there is an overload of 4,400 beds between public and private hospitals, the criteria for the use of ICUs should be more restrictive.

The Spanish government's plan for the beds says that in the absence of ICU beds “potentially preventable deaths” can occur once the patient flow is so great that they will have to undergo screening. "The screening protocols were developed for ICUs based on the likelihood that the needs during a disaster are greater than the availability," says the document.