Why Spain is one of the countries most affected by coronavirus

If Spain has more deaths per capita than any other country except Belgium, the death rate among confirmed cases is 10.4%, lower than that of Italy, France or from the United Kingdom.

“The problem here is the size of the epidemic, the large number of people infected when it reaches its peak,” said Fernando Rodriguez, professor of public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Spain is only ahead of the United States in terms of the number of cases diagnosed, a statistic which however depends on the quantity of tests performed. A mathematical study by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia estimates that there are more than 2 million cases, against the approximately 220,000 detected.

Before the containment began on March 14, “the virus has circulated a lot under the radar,” said Antoni Trilla, epidemiologist at the Barcelona Clinical Hospital. “During the last weeks of February and the first week of March there was wonderful weather and people were on the street, very close to each other,” said Fernando Rodriguez. “This contributed to accelerating very strongly and in a very short time the contagion”.

The way of life of people who spend a lot of time on the street, having a drink, partying, following a procession or demonstrating, may have played an important role.

In Spain as in Italy, “people kiss and touch each other easily, here we kiss each other non-stop, even at work,” remarks Ildefonso Hernandez, professor of public health at the Miguel Hernandez University in Alicante (south East).

Fernando Rodríguez also chooses the type of housing in Spain, the European country with the most inhabitants living in apartments, according to Eurostat. “Our cities are built vertically, with a high population density”.

“The virus has spread very widely and has reached very old age very quickly,” said Ildefonso Hernandez.

Spain has a high proportion of elderly people, which is lower than that of other more spared countries like Germany. “But in northern Europe, they live more secluded and family ties are more strained,” he said.

Here, where it is common to see three generations going for a Sunday walk, “the family is much closer, the contact between young and old much closer”.

In addition, they often live together: on average Spaniards leave their parental home at 29 and a half, compared to 18 and a half in Sweden and 21 in Denmark, according to Eurostat.

Hernandez also notes that families frequently visit parents in retirement homes.

“The population of these residences is very old, very fragile. They are not health facilities and they are not prepared for that. This caused a fire of colossal proportions, ”adds Mr. Trilla.

The Ministry of Health has not released global figures for deaths in retirement homes. But only the two most affected regions, Madrid and Catalonia, have some 8,000 deaths there between confirmed or suspected cases.

The Spanish health care system, one of the top 10 in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), suffered serious cuts during the financial crisis.

It relies on a solid network of health centers, but hospitals have a bed capacity far below the European average, which has made it necessary to deploy field hospitals.

In Spain, “the results of the system were considered to be very good and relatively little public money was spent on them,” said Guillem Lopez Casasnovas, economist at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, ​​a former WHO consultant. But “it did not overcome the stress test”, like banks with little equity: “When you live day to day, you get the most out of what you have, but you don’t have no muscle to resist a strong tension like today ”.