The total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic rises to 147 while 780 people have been admitted to hospitals in the Alicante Province
Twelve more people have died in the province of Alicante in the last day due to the coronavirus. Thankfully the figure represents a decrease compared to the previous day, when there were 20 deaths, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
In the entire province, 147 people have died of the disease while in the Valencian Community there have been 339.
According to the data provided by the Ministry of Health today there are 182 new positive cases in the province (398 in the Valencian Community). There are also 780 people admitted to hospital, 126 of them in Intensive Care Units.
The total number of total cases registered in the Valencian Community has increased to 5,508. Of those, 613 are in Castellón, 2,021in Alicante and 2,874 in Valencia. Of these there are 2,189 people in hospital: 231 in Castellón (40 in the ICU), 780 in Alicante (126 in the ICU) and 1,178 in Valencia (190 in the ICU).
To date, there have also been 200 people discharged from hospital: 138 in the province of Valencia, 53 in Alicante and 9 in Castellón. Of the tests carried out for the virus a total of 14,733 have been negative.
Ana Barceló also said that the number of additional staff who have joined healthcare in recent days not totals 2,104.
In the 72 Care Homes in the community the total number of residents affected by coronavirus is 431, 50 in the province of Castellón, 178 in Alicante and 203 in the province of Valencia. The number of workers that have tested positive numbers 122 and so far 81 residents have died, five in the province of Castellón, 50 in Alicante and 26 in Valencia.
The constant increase in hospital admissions, especially to Intensive Care Units , is pushing these services to the limit in the province.
The worst situation is at the Marina Baixa Hospital, in Villajoyosa, which has had to transfer at least three patients to ICUs in private clinics in the area, as their service is saturated.
In the two largest hospitals in the province, Alicante General and the Sant Joan, the ICUs are completely full with coronavirus patients. In the Hospital de Sant Joan some patients with Covid-19 are being nursed in operating rooms due to the lack of beds in ICU.
At the General Hospital of Alicante there is concern about a lack of respirators, although at the moment they are just about managing by using anaesthesia adapters, however, sources at the hospital are confident that they have just about reached the peak of admissions.
In both hospitals, the number of beds for critically ill patients has been but not all of these areas guarantee the isolation required by intubated Covid-19 patients, and there is also concern about the shortage of respirators.
One of the biggest problems in treating this disease is that it causes long ICU admissions, close to three weeks, while a heart attack, for example, only requires two days.
“Every day an average of two or three patients new patients are admitted and none of them leave, a situation that is unsustainable,” an intensive care doctor said yesterday.
Following yesterday’s slight improvement in the figures there was disappointment as the Health Ministry announced that a total of 849 people had died in the last 24 hours, setting a new record for the number of fatalities in a day.
The total number of coronavirus deaths in Spain now stands at 8,189. Registered infections have risen to 94,417 after new cases had slowed over the last five days. A total of 5,607 patients have required intensive care treatment, while 19,259 patients have recovered from the Covid-19 disease and have been discharged from hospital.
