The worst is yet to come', says Spanish government on coronavirus
BRUSSELS
With hospitals reaching the limit of their capacity and the number of deaths from the new coronavirus rising rapidly, Spain tries to avoid a crisis similar to that of Italy , the country with the most deaths from the pandemic in the world.
Spain is the third country in the world with the highest number of cases, behind Italy and China, and the fourth in number of deaths, behind Italy, China and Iran . In the 24 hours until the morning of this Saturday (21), the number of deaths in the Iberian country rose 32%, to 1,326 victims. At 18h, 1,378 deaths were already registered.
"The worst is yet to come," said Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, in a speech this Saturday night (late afternoon in Brazil). He asked the population to work together to prevent the spread of contagion.
Most affected region, Madrid has 8,921 confirmed cases and 804 deaths, or 60% of fatal cases. There are 700 people hospitalized in the Spanish capital and, although it has transformed hotel rooms into ICUs in recent days, Madrid has not been able to deal with all cases.
Sánchez said the Army will increase the number of hospital beds by an additional 5,500.
Catalonia is heading for a similar crisis, according to the Spanish Society of Intensive Care. In the region of Barcelona, the health system should be saturated between the 6th and the 20th of April. "If the disease curve is not reduced, we will see the same crisis in Madrid," said the organization's president, Marta Raurell, to the newspaper El País.
As in the United Kingdom, Spanish researchers released a manifesto calling for total quarantine to stop the epidemic in Spain.
"With a partial restriction like the one that the government determined, the health system must be saturated on March 25," says the group of 70 scientists, from areas such as public health, epidemiology, infectious diseases, microbiology, and molecular biology.
"With a partial restriction like the one that the government determined, the health system must be saturated on March 25," says the group of 70 scientists, from areas such as public health, epidemiology, infectious diseases, microbiology, and molecular biology.
The researchers suggest total mobility restrictions of 15 to 21 days in all autonomous communities with more than 25 cases per million inhabitants. Madrid and the La Rioja region have the highest rates, with 132 cases for every million inhabitants.
According to the Prime Minister, there will be no tougher measures at the moment, because they are already being obeyed by the majority of the population. “We cannot prevent a mother from walking her autistic child. We must not lose sight of human rights, ”he said in the statement.
Sánchez also addressed those who are disrespecting the request for confinement: “Leaving home is not a test of fearlessness, but of lack of respect for others. It is not fear that keeps us at home, it is courage ”.
Police in the Spanish capital will adopt a measure similar to that of the French government and ask for sworn statements from anyone on the street, justifying the need for circulation.
Police in the Spanish capital will adopt a measure similar to that of the French government and ask for sworn statements from anyone on the street, justifying the need for circulation.
The Spanish government announced on Saturday the purchase of 640 thousand new tests for the virus and four robots to do up to 80 thousand tests per day.
The possibility of finding patients, asymptomatic cases and people already immunized is considered essential to make better public decisions, according to epidemiologists.
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