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Spain’s hospitals are starting to see another rise in patients, with the Ministry of Health reporting this week that 805 people have been hospitalized in the past seven days as experts search for reasons why Spain struggles more than its European neighbors.
Less than two months after fighting the coronavirus, Spain’s hospitals are starting to see patients who have difficulty breathing back to their wards.
The coronavirus devastated the country in March and April, with the daily death toll reaching more than 900 dead a few months ago.
While an improved test effort reveals that a majority of those infected are asymptomatic and younger – making them less likely to need medical treatment – concerns increase as hospitals begin to see more patients.
And experts are looking for reasons why Spain is struggling more than its neighbors after Western Europe gained a degree of control over the pandemic.
But one thing is clear: the size of the second wave depends on the response to the first.
“The data did not lie,” Rafael Bengoa, the former health chief of the Basque country of Spain and international public health adviser, told The Associated Press.
“The figures say that where we had good local epidemiological tracking, e.g. [in the rural northwest], things have gone well, ”said Bengoa. ‘But in other parts of the country, where we apparently did not have enough local capacity to deal with outbreaks, we have community transmission again, and once you [have] community transmission, things get out of hand. ”
Bengoa is one of 20 Spanish epidemiologists and public health experts who recently called for an independent study in a letter published in the medical journal The Lancet to identify the weaknesses that Spain has made among the least affected countries are affected by the pandemic in Europe despite its robust universal health care system.
‘Family reunions are dangerous’
Except for teens and young adults, Spaniards largely abide by mandatory face mask rules. The Ministry of Health also launched one of the largest epidemiological surveys in the world, and randomly tested more than 60,000 people to find that the prevalence of the virus is 5 percent, far from reaching “germ immunity”.
The Spanish ministry announced on Tuesday that 805 people nationwide had been hospitalized in the past seven days. Half of the 64 people who died last week came from Aragón, the region around Zaragoza.
With a population of 47 million, Spain leads Europe with 44,400 new cases confirmed in the past 14 days compared to just 4,700 new cases registered by Italy, with 60 million inhabitants.
Hospitalizations have quintupled in Spain since early July, when Covid-19 cases came down to a trickle after a serious lockdown stopped a first wave of the virus that had driven the health care system to its breaking point.
“There is no single factor in such a pandemic,” said Manuel Franco, a professor of epidemiology at John Hopkins and the Spanish University of Alcalá, who also signed The Lancet letter.
Franco cited Spain’s economic inequality, which has exposed poorer communities – particularly fruit pickers – to greater damage, underpaid epidemiological surveillance services and their large tourism sector. Combined with other factors, they could have formed a deadly cocktail.
Bengoa is of the opinion that social customs and traits that occur in Mediterranean cultures, which emphasize physical contact and smaller personal space, also work against Spain.
“Family gatherings are dangerous in Spain. We become anti-Spanish in social gatherings if Spaniards do not kiss, hug and touch each other, “said Bengoa, adding that Spanish and Italian families live in larger, more multi-generational groups than in most northern European countries, and create contamination. within households more likely.
Some authorities seem to agree. A campaign for public awareness of the Canary Islands shows a family reunion to celebrate a grandfather’s birthday, with people taking off and embracing masks, only to end up with the grandfather in a hospital bed.
Regional smoking ban
A ban on smoking on streets and restaurant terraces if social distance cannot be guaranteed, came into effect on Thursday in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. Under a law approved by the Galician regional government late on Wednesday, smoking is not allowed in public as it is not possible to keep a distance of 2 meters (6.7 feet) between people.
The head of Galicia’s regional government, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, said several experts had warned his administration that “smoke without restrictions, including on a terrace without restrictions, with people nearby, or in crowded places, without social distance , represents a high risk of infection “. Other areas consider similar limitations.
Some regions of Spain have complained that the central government has not given them the special authority to restrict people to their homes that it uses in the state for three months. This has led to regions being limited to recommending that people stay home – instead of ordering them to do so – and thus lower lower rates for commitments.
(FRANCE 24 May AP and AFP)
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