TWO years on from the Covid-19 pandemic entering Spain and with its first peacetime lockdown in centuries on the horizon, survival rate among those who catch the virus is now 'above 90%', according to medics.
National Spanish news reporters who visited intensive care in mid-March 2020 at one of the country's worst-affected hospitals at the time – the Ramón y Cajal in Madrid – have now gone back there to find out how the situation compares in the same month in 2022.
With the hitherto unnamed Coronavirus bursting into Spain just weeks after the Chinese city of Wuhan went into total lockdown, Madrid was completely devastated by uncontrolled contagion, with pop-up hospitals and mortuaries on industrial estates, beds in corridors, and almost every resident in the capital having lost at least one family member or friend from the disease.
Conversely, outside of Spain's largest cities, the impact of the first wave of the virus was almost anecdotal – official figures post-lockdown showing cases of towns of 25,000 with just 18 cases and three deaths, or of 11,000 inhabitants with two cases and no deaths, were very common.
In the beginning, though, figures by municipality or even region were not revealed, which was partly why the national lockdown was so successful: Everyone assumed everyone else was infected unless proven otherwise, and acted accordingly.
After the Spanish public was gradually 'released' through a four-phase 'unlocking', the national government praised the nation for its responsible, community-spirited behaviour – pulling together for the greater good, even whilst apart.
It was estimated that the first, total shutdown, where the only 'excuse' for being outside the home for three months was essential supermarket shopping, potentially saved millions of lives.
Over 100 and all intubated in 2020; just five and fully conscious in 2022
Journalist Carlota Chiarroni and photographer Jorge París from the daily newspaper 20 Minutos said the 'critical' nature of the scene before them two years back was 'palpable', with over 100 patients in the ICU, every single one of them intubated and face-down, and only one of them conscious with the rest either out cold or under heavy sedation.
The crisis was so severe and came on so quickly that the Ramón y Cajal even had beds in the operating theatres to accommodate all those who had to be admitted for urgent treatment.
Now, the media team say that of the 24 beds in intensive care, only five are occupied, all of them awake, and some of them waving to the visitors.
Head of the anaesthetics team Dr David Pestaña says: “This is no longer a hospital on the battleground in the midst of a war.
“Two years ago, out of every three patients admitted to hospital with Covid, you knew that one wouldn't survive, and it was just awful looking at the people being brought in and knowing immediately which ones were not going to make it. It was a horrible sensation.
“The first wave of the virus hit us full-on. Only those who were really seriously ill were admitted – those who were gasping for breath – it was frightening.
“Back then, practically everyone who came in had to be intubated.”
Fast-forward to March 2022, and Dr Pestaña says: “Not any more, though.”
More contagious, less fatal – and rarely the main cause of admission
Head of the ICU, Dr Raúl de Pablo, said: “We're much calmer now, although it's true that December and January were pretty bad.”
This was when the Omicron variant had reached Spain – a strain which is drastically more contagious, but less likely to be fatal.
The fact Omicron increased pressure on intensive care units was due to 'patients admitted with Covid' rather than 'patients admitted due to Covid', explains Dr de Pablo.
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