By Adelina Comas-Herrera, CPEC
Following the news that the Spanish army was deployed to overwhelmed nursing homes to find that residents had been abandoned and there were corpses left in their beds, there are now reports of another nursing home in which 25 people have died already (including one of the carers) and where half of the staff are in isolation due to COVID-19. The director of the home has requested that the army takes over control immediately as the staffing levels are dangerously low.
There is more information on the previously reported instances of abandonment. El Pais reports that the homes had become overwhelmed due to illness, as the lack of appropriate Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) makes them very vulnerable to infection. They also have lacked medical support. The grim finding by the army of corpses that had been left on the beds is attributed to protocols that prohibit care home staff from touching the bodies of people who die from suspected COVID-19 in order to prevent further contagion. In normal times, the funerary services would collect a body within 2 hours, but they are taking over 24 hours at the moment.