Bodies of coronavirus victims pile up in nursing homes after staff flee

Soldiers have found dead or dying residents in multiple abandoned care homes in Spain, revealed the country’s defence minister.

The Spanish army has been drafted in to help disinfect public areas and properties to help combat the spread of coronavirus in the world’s third-worst hit country, which is currently on lockdown.

But during visits to care homes, elderly patients were found abandoned and some people’s bodies were even discovered in the same properties as loved ones who were still alive, reported Spanish media.

It is understood some care home staff had been sent home to isolate after there had been outbreaks of Covid-19 in the buildings but left behind residents in the process. Politicians in Madrid have admitted 20 per cent of its elderly care homes have confirmed cases of the virus.

A total of 21 people died at a care home in Alcoy, near Alicante identified as Domus Vi, confirmed health chiefs on Monday.

State prosecutors have already announced they are investigating Madrid’s Monte Hermoso care home, where 17 people were found dead last week. Officials originally said 19 people had died but regional health chiefs later lowered the number.

‘The army, during certain visits, found some older people completely abandoned, sometimes even dead in their beds,’ Defence Minister Margarita Robles told news broadcaster Telecinco.

‘We are going to be implacable and forceful when it comes to ensuring our pensioners receive the proper treatment in these residences.’

Although she insisted the vast majority of care homes had properly cared for their residents, she added: ‘The full weight of the law will be brought to bear on those who don’t fulfil their obligations.’

Spanish officials have now pledged to be ‘strict and inflexible’ about protecting elderly people, while the country’s general prosecutor has now launched an investigation following the harrowing discoveries.

It comes as the country’s number of confirmed cases shot up to 39,673 on Tuesday, while 514 more died, bringing the country’s death toll to 2,696.

Madrid is becoming increasingly overwhelmed as cases continue to rise and has decided to transform an Olympic-sized ice rink into a morgue, close to a conference centre which has been turned into a field hospital.

Its city hall yesterday announced the capital’s 14 public cemetries would stop accepting more bodies because staff did not have adequate protective gear.

Under an agreement reached by the capital’s regional government and the defence ministry on Friday, soldiers have started to help transport the remains of people who died from the virus to morgues.

It comes after shocking footage emerged showing patients lying on the floor of Madrid hospitals as they wait to be seen by medical staff. It was published by local media in a bid to encourage more people to stay at home and obey social distancing restrictions.

Additional reporting by Gerard Couzens.

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