The temperature of the coronavirus crisis in Catalonia his risen in the last few hours of this Wednesday evening. Catalan health minister Alba Vergés tonight announced the closure of schools and universities in and around Igualada, a city of 40,000 people located 60km inland from Barcelona. Specifically, the closure affects kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and two university campuses, both in the city itself and in three other nearby municipalities in the same county, L' Anoia.
"This is a different outbreak of coronavirus, which has nothing to do with the rest of the country," said Alba Vergés. The outbreak has affected Igualada Hospital and has caused the death of one person who had been admitted to the palliative care unit, and it is still being investigated whether two other fatalities were also a consequence of coronavirus.
In a press conference called at 8pm, the minister explained that given this different and exceptional situation, new measures of an extraordinary and specific nature had been adopted, which, in addition to Igualada, also affect the localities of Jorba, Santa Margarida de Montbui, Vilanova del Camí and Òdena. These restrictions are in addition to those announced by the Catalan government this morning.
"These are measures to contain a possible spread of the outbreak, we have to anticipate and attempt to react so that these special situations that have occurred in the municipality of Igualada can be specifically addressed and normality maintained in the rest of the country," she explained.
Health personnel
The Catalan public health secretary, Joan Guix, described the situation as a cluster, a concentration of cases grouped in a specific place, which has also been affecting people who were at the hospital in Igualada, both patients and professionals.
There are currently 20 positive cases confirmed, among them 8 health professionals. One person died while in the hospital's Palliative Care Unit, having previously had a "major pathology", while two other deaths, Igualada residents about whom no further information was given, are under study and cannot be linked to this cluster yet.
About 250 contacts have been identified, of whom 200 are healthcare professionals. Hence the extraordinary nature of the case which makes it different from the way the epidemic is developing in the rest of Catalonia, said Guix. However, he insisted that more than 80% of cases are mild, and do not change the overall assessment of the situation in Catalonia that was communicated on Wednesday afternoon in a statement from the ministry. The outbreak was detected between yesterday and this morning, but the date when it began has not yet been determined.
However, the public health secretary said that the origin of the outbreak had been identified, although he did not want to give more information, and now the job is to follow the contacts that have been emerging from the discovery of the chain of contacts. "Until now we have been successfully tracing the paths," he said, denying that the Igualada case was comparable to the situation in Madrid.
The measures announced by the Catalan government will affect a total of 15,412 students and 1,401 teachers. The government has also closed public civic centres in the municipalities and has adopted specific measures for nursing homes and day centres for the elderly.
For his part, the mayor of Igualada, Marc Castells, who was also present at the press conference, declared that all public activities organized by the city council, as well as privately organized activities in public facilities and spaces had now been cancelled for the next 15 days, and as well, associations would be asked to call off their events.
Igualada Hospital has a workforce of around one thousand health professionals, and its service will be reinforced by the rest of the Catalan network, said Catalan health service official Marta Chandre. This will be achieved both through the reinforcement of professionals and the redirection of cases, and the use of telematic assistance. As well, the minister Vergés said that if necessary, the private healthcare system would be asked to provide reinforcement.