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People in the queue to get tested for Covid-19 at the Buenos Aires health center in southern Madrid on Friday morning were greeted with a gloomy but polite home-made sign.
It still contained the information from the previous day, written with a marker: consultations – telephone and in person – 483; Covid consultations, 19; PCR tests, 78; and number of absent employees, 13.
Clipped below was another note: “We are doing everything we can to take care of you. Sorry for the interruption. “
The board’s plaintive message resonates in many of the poorer parts of the Madrid region as the second wave of coronavirus hits Spain and once again threatens to overwhelm the healthcare system in and around the capital.
During the last two weeks, Spain has reported more than 122,000 new cases of Covid-19, more than a third of them in the Madrid region. The number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants stands at 259.76 in the whole of Spain. In Madrid, the figure rises to 659.41, and in Puente de Vallecas, a district served by the Buenos Aires medical center, it is 1,241.
In the UK, there are 59.3 cases per 100,000, in France, 166.9, and in Italy, 33.
As numbers in Spain mount, bringing with it a sense of disgusting deja vu, the Madrid regional government has staggered.
On Wednesday, the deputy health minister said selective closures would be introduced this weekend to stop the spread of the virus. A day later, when the central government called for urgent measures, the administration backtracked, saying that the word “closure” made people nervous and added that the plan was simply “to reduce mobility and contacts” in the most affected areas. .
The regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who questioned the prudence of extending the strict national blockade in May – “people are run over every day but that does not mean that we ban cars” – accused the central government of leaving Madrid.
It was criticized earlier this week after stating that the contagion rate in the south of the city and the region was due “among other things, to the way of life of immigrants in Madrid and the population density in these districts and municipalities.” .
Late on Friday afternoon, Ayuso announced that a partial closure of the 37 most affected areas in the region would take effect on Monday.
The restrictions will apply to areas, including the districts of Puente de Vallecas, where there are more than 1,000 cases per 100,00 inhabitants.
The new measures affect some 850,000 people and mean that people in confined areas will only be able to enter and leave the areas for work, educational, legal or medical reasons. Public and private gatherings will be limited to six people and the parks will be closed.
The regional prime minister said the goal was to avoid a return to the state of emergency that underpinned the national shutdown in the spring and summer, “because that is an economic disaster.”
Ayuso and the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, will meet this Monday in Madrid to discuss a joint strategy to “flatten the curve.”
But as U-turns have been made, scapegoats have been sought and political squabbles indulged, the virus has continued its new spread. Once again, the poorest are the hardest hit and medical resources are under increasing pressure. Several health centers have had to close due to staff shortages, while others continue to limp as best they can.
Flora Espejo, a nurse at the Buenos Aires health center, gave a brief assessment of the situation on Thursday. “We are doing what we can,” he told La Sexta TV, but pointed out that the long line of people queuing outside the clinic was the most affected.
She said: “We cannot take care of them due to the way things are at the moment. Take a look around you. Who are those who work? The working class. Who are those who have to travel for work reasons? The working class. Who doesn’t telecommute? The working class. Who are the people who live from six to eight in a 45 square meter apartment? The working class… They are the ones who are suffering. We are overwhelmed, but they are the ones who are suffering the consequences of the mismanagement of all this by the regional government ”.
While waiting outside the center for a CRP test on his five-year-old son, Jonathan Gálvez said he feared the situation would get worse. “It’s complicated enough, but now we are heading into flu season,” said the transportation worker. “And it is shameful that so many health centers are closed.”
Ángela Hernández Puente, surgeon and deputy secretary general of the Amtys medical association in Madrid, said that although things in the health centers were “really bad”, mainly due to the chronic shortage of personnel and the number of health workers with Covid -19, Madrid hospitals were also beginning to experience an unpleasantly familiar trend.
Across Spain, Covid patients occupy 8.6% of hospital beds, but in Madrid, the figure is 21%, and it continues to increase. Two of the region’s hospitals said their intensive care units (ICUs) were already operating at 100% capacity.
“Between the non-Covid patients and the Covid patients, they are already full,” said Hernández Puente. “That means they have to use areas that have been repurposed as ICUs, but are not actually ICUs. We are seeing scheduled surgeries being canceled, which is difficult because there is a delay due to the last few months. “
The surgeon, who sounds more tired and more concerned than less than a fortnight ago, describes the regional government’s handling of the second wave as “absolutely Kafkaesque.”
Given the trends, he added, much more aggressive measures should have been implemented before now. It recognizes that Madrid’s population number and density, not to mention high levels of mobility, present their own challenges.
“But you can’t expect the problem to fix itself, which is what they seem to be doing,” he said.
Hernández Puente is also skeptical about the reopening rumors of the huge field hospital that was installed in the main congress center in Madrid at the height of the previous peak.
“Where do you think they will get the doctors, nurses and nursing assistants? If they did that, they would have to close the local health centers as they did in the worst moments of the pandemic. “
If a repeat of spring is to be avoided, he said, there needs to be more solidarity when it comes to burden-sharing between hospitals, both public and private. However, time is running out.
“I don’t know where all this is going to end,” said Hernández Puente. “Not really”.
