Coronavirus: Spain records new daily death toll as patients filmed lying in hospital corridors
Nearly 4,000 health workers infected with Covid-19
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Footage has emerged of patients inside hospitals in Spain lying in corridors as they wait for treatment as the death toll rose to over 2,000 in Europe’s second-worst hit country.
Some could be heard coughing as they waited while others were lying near oxygen tanks.
The video was taken at the Infanta Leonor Hospital in Madrid, according to El Mundo.
It was released as the death toll in Spain hit 2,182, with an additional 462 deaths, as positive cases rose to 33,089.
Nearly 4,000 health workers in the country are infected with Covid-19, or more than one in 10 total confirmed cases, officials said on Monday.
As in many other countries hit hard by the virus, nurses, doctors and other health workers have said they are not getting enough protective kits.
“We have some data we do not like, because we should try to control it, such as having 3,910 health workers affected,” health emergency chief Fernando Simon told a news conference.
The country’s deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, was hospitalised on Sunday with respiratory infection and is awaiting coronavirus test results, the government said on Monday.
Two other ministers and the wife of the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, have also tested positive for the coronavirus over the past weeks.
With an extension of a nationwide lockdown to 11 April is set to be approved by parliament on Wednesday, Mr Simon said now was not the time for people to relax on respecting rules banning anyone from leaving their home except to go to work, buy food or go to the pharmacy.
“On several occasions it has been said that the peak (of the epidemic) could be reached this week. Reaching the peak does not involve having controlled the problem, it means that you have to redouble your efforts not to take a step backwards,” Mr Simon said.
“We are at war,” Mr Sanchez told a news briefing, calling on Europe to launch a massive, coordinated public investment programme like the post-WWII Marshall Plan.
An extension would need to be approved by parliament but that is guaranteed after the main opposition party, the conservative People’s Party, said it would support it, giving enough votes to Mr Sanchez’s Socialist Party and its far-left government coalition partner Unidas Podemos.
Mr Sanchez said he hoped all parties would support the extension. It would be the first time in Spain’s four-decade democracy a state of emergency would be prolonged.
Mr Sanchez praised Spaniards’ commitment to home confinement, and defended the need to extend the state of emergency, saying: “We hope that with this so drastic, dramatic and hard measure ... we can bend the coronavirus’ curve”.
Additional reporting by agencies
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments