Some nursing home residents in Spain were excluded from being transferred to hospitals at peak of COVID-19

Internal documents from the Madrid government show that regional officials issued protocols with criteria to exclude some nursing home residents from being transferred to hospitals at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Physicians at healthcare centers were also instructed to apply certain guidelines to determine whether ill people living in their own homes should receive there instead of being taken to hospital.

Although there are no official figures yet, newspaper El Pais estimated that over 19,000 people have died at social services centers across Spain, which include retirement homes and centers for people with disabilities.

The Spanish government has made changes to its guidelines for a safe return to school in September, when the country will be under the “new normality.”

After months of remote learning students will go back adapted to smaller class sizes, more hygiene measures and face masks when safety distances cannot be observed.

The decree regulating the “new normality” has reduced the safety distance from two meters to 1.5.