Faced with coronavirus, Spanish hospitals on the brink of saturation

Spain is very close to what it had feared for a long time—: “—colapso sanitario—”, as it calls it, that is to say the saturation of hospitals. REUTERS / Sergio Perez

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On the European continent, Spain is paying a heavy price for the Covid-19 epidemic with 864 deaths in the last 24 hours, 9,000 dead in total. Hospitals are overwhelmed and have trouble coping.

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With our correspondent in Madrid, François Musseau

Spain is very close to what it had feared for a long time: the colapso sanitario ("sanitary collapse"), as they say there. In other words, saturation in hospitals. It's the same scenario in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Navarre, Andalusia, in the Valencian region. Hospital centers are overwhelmed by the arrival of patients who suffer from severe coronavirus symptoms: cough, fever and difficulty breathing.

On Wednesday, the country recorded a record 864 deaths in 24 hours, exceeding the 9,000 victims in total.

Confusion and bottlenecks

The most acute problem is concentrated in the intensive care units (ICU) where there are large and distressing queues. Patient transfers certainly occur to less affected cities and regions such as Asturias or Extremadura. But this is done in confusion and sometimes chaos, because this very decentralized country that is Spain, is not at all used to this kind of operation. This means that there are many bottlenecks, as in several hospitals in Barcelona, ​​for example, where people over 70 are no longer even admitted to intensive care services. We let them die.

Experts warn that the situation will worsen in the next two weeks. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization alerted to the “ quasi-exponential ” progression of the pandemic which has already claimed 46,000 lives worldwide.

► Also listen: Living in confinement in Spain

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  • Spain
  • Coronavirus
  • Health and Medicine

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