MADRID, March 24, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Spanish soldiers deployed to help fight
the new coronavirus outbreak have found elderly patients abandoned, and
sometimes dead, at retirement homes, as an ice rink inside a Madrid shopping
mall was turned into a temporary morgue to cope with a surge in cases.
The army has been charged with helping to disinfect retirement homes in
Spain, one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic. Dozens of deaths from
COVID-19 have been recorded at facilities across the country.
“We are going to be strict and inflexible when dealing with the way old
people are treated in these residences,” Defence Minister Margarita Robles
said in an interview with private television channel Telecinco.
“The army, during certain visits, found some old people completely
abandoned, sometimes even dead in their beds,” she added.
An investigation has been launched, the general prosecutor announced.
The coronavirus death toll in Spain surged to 2,182 on Monday after 462
people died within 24 hours, according to health ministry figures.
Meanwhile, the ice rink at the Palacio de Hielo, or Ice Palace, shopping
centre in Madrid was turned into a temporary morgue to deal with a surge in
deaths in the capital, a spokeswoman for Madrid city hall told AFP.
Earlier, the city hall said the city’s 14 public cemeteries would stop
accepting more bodies because staff there did not have adequate protective
gear.
The improvised morgue would start to be used “in the coming hours,” the
regional government of Madrid said.
“This is a temporary and exceptional measure which aims to mitigate the
pain of the family members of the victims and the situation hospitals in
Madrid are facing.”
A nearby congress centre has been converted into a field hospital for
coronavirus patients that will have a total of 5,500 beds. The elderly are
especially vulnerable in the global pandemic and officials around the world
are increasingly calling for extreme measures to safeguard them.
Retirement homes are “an absolute priority for the government”, Health
Minister Salvador Illa told a press conference.
“We will exercise the most intensive monitoring of these centres.”
Under coronavirus protocols, health workers have been instructed to leave
bodies in place in suspected COVID-19 deaths until the arrival of a doctor.
But given the upsurge in deaths the delay can be lengthy.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1019 hrs