Spain orders closure of all hotels
The Spanish government on Thursday ordered the closure of all the country’s hotels and promised to implement special measures in nursing homes after a surge in the country’s coronavirus cases and deaths.
Officials reported deaths had jumped by more than a third on Thursday to 767, while the number of cases rose by a quarter to 17,149, making Spain the second worst-hit country in Europe after Italy.
The government decreed all hotels and other tourist accommodation be shut within seven days to “guarantee the containment of the pandemic,” a further hit to the country’s already ailing tourism sector.
Spain, the second most visited country in the world in 2018, has already closed its land borders to all but its nationals and residents.
Long-term boarding houses were exempted from the closure, but still subjected to a state of emergency imposed by the government almost a week ago that bars people from all but essential outings.
“The toughest moments are still to come, those moments when we will continue to see an increase in the number of cases,” Health Minister Salvador Illa said earlier on Thursday.
Nursing homes have come under the spotlight during the crisis, with prosecutors in Madrid opening an investigation on Wednesday into more than 17 coronavirus-related deaths at a nursing home where patients had been locked down without access to hospital care.
The authorities have not specified how many people have died in nursing homes but the prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday that it was also looking into the issue, as similar cases were reported at other facilities and nurses said they did not have enough protective gloves and masks.
Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias said nursing homes had to be urgently equipped with proper medical facilities and staff, calling it “an absolute priority.”
Fernando Simon, the head of the health emergency centre, said Spain was “probably slowly approaching the peak of cases.”
In downtown Madrid, the Ayre Gran Hotel Colon opened its doors on Thursday after fitting its rooms with medical equipment.
Hotels in Madrid have offered 60,000 beds to the health service, authorities said.