Coronavirus: Spain’s death toll surpasses China’s – the new epicenter of Europe

On Wednesday the UN said the virus was “threatening the whole of humanity” as it launched a $2bn (£1.7bn) appeal for the world’s poorest people. “Global action and solidarity are crucial. Individual country responses are not going to be enough,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. Figures released by the health ministry on Wednesday showed that in just 24 hours, Spain’s national death toll rose by 738. Its number of cases soared by 7,973. These are the highest figures for Spain in a single day. The country now has 47,610 confirmed cases.

Catalonia accounts for close to 10,000 of those, while the Basque Country and Andalusia both have more than 3,000 cases. But the worst-affected region is the area around the capital Madrid, which has recorded 14,597 cases. Madrid’s municipal funeral home announced on Tuesday it had stopped collecting victims of Covid-19 – the disease caused by the coronavirus – while the city’s major ice rink will be used as a temporary mortuary. On Monday, soldiers in Spain brought in to tackle the outbreak found retirement home residents abandoned and even dead in their beds. The defense ministry said that staff at some care homes had left after the coronavirus was detected.

On Wednesday local media reported that more than 20 residents who were confirmed to have the virus or had symptoms of it had died at the Fundación Santísima Virgen y San Celedonio care home in Madrid’s Chamartín district. Some 50 members of staff were in isolation.   –BBC