Emergency tents back as Madrid struggles to curb virus wave

MADRID (AP) — A line of green tents labeled with a red cross stands empty Friday in the garden of a Madrid military hospital as a second wave of the coronavirus takes hold in the Spanish capital.

The Gómez Ulla hospital is getting ready just in case emergency wards get crammed again.

COVID-19 cases are stubbornly on the rise in Madrid despite curbs on nightlife, outdoor smoking and limiting all group interaction to a maximum of 10 people. The incremental measures have not prevented the outbreaks from spreading widely, something that experts blame on looser observance of self-protection and, especially, a failure in diligent tracing of contacts of positive cases.

Authorities in Madrid were set to announce “drastic measures” Friday against the outbreaks. They hinted that those could include localized lockdowns and other “restrictions on mobility” in Madrid’s hardest-hit areas, which are also the poorest and more densely populated.

But experts are warning that they may not even be enough.

“There is so much community transmission in Madrid that is possible that very soon a full lockdown will be needed,” said Rafael Bengoa, a former WHO official.

“It seems like we are learning too slow — we haven’t acted energetically enough,” he told Cadena SER radio.

The measures are “tardy and insufficient,” said Daniel López Acuña, who was director of emergencies at WHO. “They are overthinking it. Action is needed.”

The center-right coalition government in Madrid has been in turmoil, part internal infighting and part external criticism, as it struggled this week on what to do next. The region’s top coronavirus expert announced on Wednesday that stay-at-home orders should be expected by the weekend, but his bosses took a distance from his remarks.

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