Health officials in Spain have said they could be over the worst of coronavirus as they claim “the disease is stabilising.”
The country’s emergency health director Fernando Simon said on Saturday, “The disease is stabilising, and we can say some areas of the country may have surpassed the peak, although we can’t say the same at a national level.”
Responding to overnight reports in Spanish media pointing to the likelihood the number of coronavirus deaths was higher than the official figures,
Despite the record number of deaths reaching 832 in on day, the health director insists, “It’s true we can’t test all those people infected and there may be some that escape us.
“But Spain is making a great effort to be as transparent as possible.”
Spanish citizens have been in a strict enforced lockdown for almost two week and people face fines of €3,000 to those who break the lockdown laws. Unlike the UK people are not allowed out of their homes to exercise and only one person is allowed to travel in a car.
Over 9,000 health workers in the country, doctors nurses and ambulance drivers have been infected with coronavirus and the Spanish healthcare system is “completely overwhelmed.”
Ambulance medic Pablo Rojo, at Barcelona’s Dos de Maig hospital said, “We are completely overwhelmed.”
Spain currently has, as of Saturday 72,248 cases and in 24 hours the country had a further 8,189 coronavirus cases. The country has a death toll of 5,690.
Professor Julio Mayol, medical director at the Clinico San Carlos Hospital in Madrid, has told Sky News he fears more and more healthcare professionals fighting the illness will become infected.
He said, “It is a bad situation, it is really bad and it is getting worse day by day, because the number of positive COVID-19 patients is increasing.
“We have a large number of patients, and the problem is we can’t increase the room available.
“We can provide them with more beds, but we need personal protection equipment (PPE), and there is a global shortage, and this is makes it very difficult for us to send healthcare workers to battle on the frontline without the adequate equipment.”
Professor Mayol added, “Secondly, healthcare professionals are getting infected. I estimate it could be as many as 25% in the near future if we don’t do something.
“Right now, two of my closest collaborators are COVID-19 positive, so it is becoming a nightmare.
“Many of our doctors have been admitted, even those fighting the virus.
“Nurses are also a major problem for us, especially those in the intensive care units.
“If we don’t get the right personnel to handle these ICU patients, its going to be almost impossible to increase the number of ICU beds, because we won’t have trained personnel to take care of our patients.”
Europe currently accounts for half of the world’s coronavirus cases, Germany Italy and Spain have seen thousands of deaths in recent weeks and are the worst hit countries.
Many countries across Europe are having lockdowns extended, particularly in Spain and Italy as the cases are rapidly climbing.
A Red Cross official has warned that Europe’s cities will imminently erupt with civil unrest, as this is a “social bomb.”