The Coronavirus Disaster You’re Not Paying Attention To
BARCELONA—It was a perfect Barcelona day. The wet air was filled with spring smells. The city’s pollution rate had declined by 89 percent. Crime had dropped more than 70 percent. Police cars, lights flashing, sat idle on the empty street. The ambulances, around 10 of them, were parked in front of my local health center. One rode past, its lights on but with the siren silent.
A perfect day, except the COVID-19 death toll had just exceeded that of China, a country of 1.4 billion.
Spain is reeling from the coronavirus epidemic. By Friday, the daily death toll reached 769 over 24 hours. As of this writing, Spain has suffered 4,858 fatalities overall with 64,059 confirmed cases—including 9,444 health workers. Some 36,293 people are hospitalized. Only 9,357 patients have recovered. All this in a county with a population one-seventh the size of the United States.