A disturbing footage of COVID-19 patients lying on the floor of a hospital corridor in Spain as they await medical staff to see them went viral online.
The video shows patients enduring the hard and cold tiled floor as they cough deeply and medics stand nearby. In the video, some of the patients on the floor were hooked up to oxygen tanks.
According to local media outlet Larazon, the scenes were recorded at the Infanta Leonor Hospital and the Severo Ochoa de Leganes Hospital, the latter has endured a particularly hard hit of the pandemic and has seemingly collapsed due to the pressure.
Moreover, the video which was locally shared before it went viral was posted in order to encourage people to strictly follow social distancing measures to avoid contracting the virus before it worsens.
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Spain grapples against Coronavirus
At the moment, Spain has recorded more than 33,000 confirmed cases and more than 2,100 deaths caused by the novel coronavirus. Fifty-eight percent of these deaths were recorded in Madrid which has brought the country's health care system to the brink of collapse.
With Italy's latest data bringing hope that the outbreak may soon subside, Spain is in danger of being the new epicenter of the pandemic in Europe.
Carmen Calvo, the country's deputy prime minister is also among those who are still waiting for their test results following a respiratory infection last Sunday which prompted his family and staff to bring him to the hospital.
The videos that were posted are also proof of how the country is struggling to win the fight against the COVID-19 crisis, the first clip that was posted recorded patients at the Infanta Leonor Hospital lying on the floor wearing face masks and with only bed sheets to protect them from the cold hard floor.
An almost similar scene was recorded from Severo Ochoa de Leganes Hospital, patients were also lined up in corridors, but in this video they were on gurneys and were also coughing heavily.
Spanish hospitals have reached maximum capacity
According to Daily Mail, Spanish local newspaper El Mundo reported that Severo Ochoa de Leganes Hospital have confirmed that they have reached their maximum capacity and are not admitting patients anymore.
Moreover, Javier Garcia of the General Union of Workers described the current situations at the hospitals as "dramatic," as their emergency wards are already admitting three times their capacity and people who cannot be accommodated in beds sit on chairs for more than 30 hours.
On top of this, a representative of the healthcare union SATSe also said that the hospital in the first clip has also reached its maximum capacity after admitting more than 500 COVID-19 patients, 300 of which are confirmed and 230 are still under observation.
The collapse of the healthcare system in the country is also attributed to the lack of healthcare workers after 3,910 of them tested positive for the virus, which is around 12% of the infected in the country.
