ARCHIVED - Coronavirus reaches mainland Spain

Eight new cases on Tuesday and Wednesday morning include 4 in Tenerife and others in Barcelona, Castellón and Madrid

The worldwide coronavirus scare suddenly became far more relevant to Spain this Tuesday and early on Wednesday as various new cases were reported, including the first four in mainland areas after previous diagnoses had been limited to the Canary and Balearic Islands.

Until the weekend only two cases had been confirmed in Spain, one concerning a German national in La Gomera, in the Canaries, and the other a Briton resident in Mallorca, but over the weekend an Italian doctor on holiday in Tenerife became the third person to be admitted to hospital in isolated care after tests proved positive. He has now been followed by his wife and two more Italians in Tenerife, and on Tuesday and Wednesday more positive results were obtained following tests on four people in Barcelona, Castellón and Madrid, all of the patients having recently returned from Italy, where the coronavirus death toll has now risen to 11.

Salvador Illa, the Minister for Health, emphasizes that none of those diagnosed with coronavirus have contracted it in Spain, but the latest developments have caused a sharp escalation in the level of concern among the general public, and in many places supplies of face masks have been exhausted as pharmacies are simply unable to cope with the sudden spike in demand.

In response to this concern, on Tuesday the Spanish government, while describing the administration’s response as being one of “alert” rather than “alarm”, announced various measures which are to be implemented across the country by the various regional health authorities, among them the universal testing for coronavirus of all patients being treated in hospital for pneumonia and a strong recommendation to avoid travelling to the areas most affected by the outbreak, including northern Italy.

The first three positive diagnoses in mainland Spain concern a 36-year-old Italian woman living in Barcelona who recently returned from a trip to her home country, a man in Villareal (in the province of Castellón) who is believed to have been one of the football fans attending the recent match between Atalanta and FC Valencia and a 24-year-old in Madrid who also travelled to the north of Italy. Few details are known as yet about a second case in Madrid except that the patient had also recently been in Italy.

Great efforts are being made to trace all of those who have come into contact with the patients in order to limit any further spread of the epidemic in Spain and to place them in quarantine in their homes, while in Tenerife the situation is tense but under control at the Costa Adeje Palace hotel, where around 1,000 tourists and staff are being kept inside the building after the four Italians staying there were found to be carrying the virus.

Image: the Hospital Carlos III in Madrid (Google Maps Street View)

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