Spain COVID-19 News: Massive Spike In COVID-19 Cases in Spain Especially In Aragon Region
Source: Spain COVID-19 News Aug 12, 2020 4 years, 4 months, 1 week, 3 days, 20 hours, 9 minutes ago
Spain COVID-19 News: Spanish health authorities are reporting of a massive spike of fresh COVID-19 cases in the Aragon region, with hospital overflowing and an acute shortage of hospital bed and ICU facilities.
It was reported that the spike in COVID-19 cases started with outbreaks in households in the impoverished working-class neighborhood of Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon.
Dr Jose Ramon Pano, an infectious disease specialist at the Zaragoza University Hospital Clinic told Thailand Medical News, "Such an overcrowded and impoverished environment is conducive to transmission of the disease, along with the cramped living conditions and the presence of a large number of immigrants who don't speak Spanish, as these are factors that favor infections.”
The initial spike in cases was started at places that can aid the virus' "super-transmission", such as family gatherings, bars and nightclubs, he added.
It was then that the virus spread to workplaces and retirement homes in the city of around 675,000 people, putting its healthcare system intense stress.
It was reported that during the last seven days, the northeastern region, which is locked in on all sides by mountains, recorded Spain's highest infection rate ie 270 cases per 100,000 people as well as 32 deaths and 242 hospitalizations from the disease.
In order to assist Aragon deal with the surge in cases, soldier today (Wednesday) began assembling a 400-square-metre (4,300- square-foot) field hospital in the car park of a Zaragoza hospital.
At the moment local and foreign travellers are scarce at Zaragoza's famous domed basilica and the city's river aquarium, one of the world's largest, closed its doors again on July 27 to prevent infections after being open for a month and a half.
However the streets of Spain's fifth-largest city are far from empty. For example, in the working-class neighborhood of Delicias, which has the city's highest infection rate, elderly couples could be seen taking a stroll and people sat in outdoor cafe terraces.
There are some however that have been staying home out of fear for the virus.
Individuals can be seen waiting outside shops, adhering to a limit on the number permitted inside at a time, queues formed at health centers.
At a public hospital, patients can be seen entering one by one into a room where a nurse, wearing two protective gowns, a face shield and mask, inserted a swab into their noses to test if they have the virus.
It was said that during the first week of August, Aragon with a population of about 1.3 million people, carried out at least 4,000-5,000 COVID-19 PCR tests per day. Each time an infection is detected, a contact tracer identifies who may have been exposed by that person so they can also be tested.
It was said that many of the tests are carried out on asymptomatic people, who may test positive because they had the disease months ago and are no longer contagious,
Significantly, Aragon's high proportion of elderly should also be
taken into account when tallying the region's COVID-19 death toll. For instance if a 85-year-old patient with prostate cancer dies, did he die of coronavirus or with coronavirus?
The head of Aragon's regional government, has blamed youths out having fun without respecting social distancing rules and the presence of many seasonal agricultural workers, many of them illegal migrants who live in crowded housing, for the spike in infections.
Local authorities have promised to deploy police, social workers and health care workers to check that individuals diagnosed with the virus and their close contacts respect quarantine orders and stay home.
The house to house visits will begin in the coming days, a regional government source said.
Certain individuals in the region have called for the government and police to take a harder line against people who do not respect social distancing rules.
It was reported that in the first week of August alone, Zaragoza police had broken up 75 gatherings of youths which broke the rules.
It is becoming more apparent that non-adherence to social distancing rules and taking the right precautions are the cause of the spike in cases.
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