Spain turns hotels to hospitals as Coronavirus death toll rises

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The Spanish Government is ordering the closure of all hotels across the country by next Thursday so they can be converted into hospitals after the country’s death toll rose by 169 in a day to 1,002

The Ministry of Health in Spain published the regulation on Thursday night in an extraordinary Official State Gazette notice.

The new measure orders ‘the suspension of opening to the public of all hotels and similar lodgings, tourist accommodation and other short-term accommodation… situated on national territory,’ the official notice reads.

“The concentration of people in tourist accommodation, which must share certain common spaces, implies an increased risk of contagion, which is why, given the situation of restriction in the mobility of people, it is necessary, to guarantee the containment of the pandemic, to proceed to suspend the opening of these establishments to the public,” said the health department.

The new rule will affect all hotels and similar accommodation, tourist accommodation and other short-stay accommodation, camping sites, caravan parks, and other similar establishments, located anywhere in the national territory.

Although the measure does not apply to long-term accommodation where guests can cater for themselves – as long as they can obey quarantine rules.

According to the Ministry of Health, 1,002 people have died from coronavirus after 169 new deaths were announced today with 18,077 confirmed cases.