Today the President of Spain Pedro Sanchez announced that the current lockdown will be extended by another 15 days until the 11th of April. This measure will be presented to Congress early next week where it will be approved.
Dr Fernando Simon Soria Director of the Centre for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies for the Ministry of Health during a press conference today gave more details on the Covid 19 outbreak. Spain has carried out over 355,000 tests so far and 12 per cent of all positive cases are that of healthcare workers who are working on the frontline to battle against this outbreak. So, 3,475 healthcare workers have tested positive, that is 10 per cent of the current workforce. Dr Fernando Simon Soria confirmed that between 15-20,000 tests are carried out on a daily basis and tests are carried out mainly on healthcare workers and patients with symptoms however he stressed the importance of testing and that testing will become more widely available to diagnose patients quicker.
Laurentino Ceña the Operations Director of the Guardia Civil also outlined the importance of the population to follow the laws laid down by the decree. A total of 18 people have been arrested for not complying and 14,785 have been fined for not staying at home. Ceña said “Don’t doubt that we will use the measures needed to ensue that the laws regarding mobility and transport are respected during this lockdown”.
The Director of the National Police Force Jose Angel Gonzalez with 78,000 agents under his command said that his agents have been informed how to deal with each situation in the current state of emergency. The national police force has arrested 74 people since the state of emergency came into vigor and have fined over 23,000. Jose Angel Gonzalez also explained that while the borders are closed apart from the specific cases outlined in the decree that a total of 345 vehicles were denied entry into Spain.
There has been a total of 3,646 new cases declared today and the total confirmed cases now at 28,572. The number of patients in intensive care is 1,785 and the number of deaths has now reached 1,720. The number of people who have recovered is 2,575
Meanwhile in Andalusia there are 1,725 confirmed cases of which 724 are in hospital 55 are intensive care and 972 are in quarantine and there have been 47 deaths (Malaga 21, Jaen 3, Granada 13, Cordoba 3, Cadiz 2, Seville 4, Almeria 1). In Seville there are 295 cases with 126 of those in hospital, the remaining 165 are in quarantine in their own homes, 4 deaths while 1 has been cured.
In Huelva there are 47 cases, this being an increase of ten new cases today, 24 are in hospital and 23 are in quarantine in their own homes.
91 patients have now been sent home from hospital in Andalusia to pass the rest of their quarantine in their own homes and there is a total of 55 people in intensive care in all of Andalusia.
With the arrival with rapid test kits, people will be able to get the test done without leaving their cars. Testing centres have been set up in Cádiz (Campo de Gibraltar y Jerez), Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga y Sevilla (city, Aljarafe y Osuna) and new testing centres will be announced. Anyone who needs to take the test must first be showing symptoms and contact the telephone number 900400061 and from there you will given instructions.