WHO praises Spain's 'heroic response' to Coronavirus outbreak

Head of epidemiology and health emergency at the WHO, Canada's Dr Bruce Aylward, headed up the mission to check on Spain's response to the spread of Covid-19 and has assured that measures taken have led to the trend 'moving towards hope'.

“Spain's response has been truly heroic, and the efforts of those on the front line extraordinarily innovative,” Dr Aylward said in a press conference, having spent eight days in the country.

His visit included inspections in medical centres in Madrid and the province of Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha – the first being the worst-hit area in the country, and the second also having some of the highest numbers of cases.

Multiplications of contagions have reduced from two days at the beginning of March to eight days by a week into April, says Dr Aylward.

This means that the time it takes for a person infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus to pass it on to multiple other people now averages eight days, whereas, just three weeks ago, this would have happened in a quarter of the time.

Imposing the national lockdown meant the average transmission time went almost immediately from two days to five.

These data 'offer hope' and are 'proof that the epidemic has been halted effectively', confirms the WHO specialist.

His visit to Spain came a month after a similar investigation in China, where the Covid-19 pandemic started.

And he considers that both these missions were 'the most extraordinary' he has carried out in the field of epidemiology in his 40-year career.

Dr Aylward stresses the 'startling speed' with which the Coronavirus spread throughout Spain – on February 22, only two or three new cases were being diagnosed daily, and outside Madrid, those regions affected were only in double figures with the numbers of patients infected.

But two weeks later, practically every region had cases on record.

With many of these imported from Italy, the number of Coronavirus positives in Spain multiplied 20 times over in seven days in March, 'which reflects the speed at which this illness can explode in given circumstances', according to Dr Aylward.

It was this rapid extension that led Spain to declare a State of Alarm and order the entire population to stay at home, shutting down all businesses except those of 'primary necessity', such as supermarkets.

This slowed the transmission time from two days to five, and was partly thanks to 'intelligent use of big data'.

Opposition members in Parliament, and a significant slice of the general public, have heavily criticised the government for failing to respond quickly enough when it had had warnings from health experts that the illness could become rife – and also for allowing the March 8 International Women's Day march to go ahead in major cities nationwide, including Madrid.

In practice, the usual annual turnout was down by around 65% as members of the public feared being part of a large gathering of people close together.

And Dr Aylward has played this down, recalling that a pandemic as extreme as the current one is not something any government leader in the western world would have seen in their own lifetimes, making it difficult to guarantee that they were doing the right thing at the right time.

“It's not easy to know why the figures rocketed like they did, and it's hard to determine at any given moment what measures are correct, and which are not,” he assured.

Despite being one of the earliest countries on earth, after China and Italy, to be forced into isolation and national shutdown – a situation not experienced before in the lifetimes of almost anyone in Spain – the public showed unprecedented and encouraging levels of self-discipline and community spirit and continues to do so, with relatively little signs of rebellion or of non-conformity.

At present, police have upped vigilance ahead of the Easter holiday weekend to make sure people do not attempt to go away for their usual spring breaks, and patrols have been stationed in and around coastal towns where large numbers of properties are holiday homes owned by residents further north and inland, and which would typically be occupied over Easter.

But police have warned that, although they welcome any information that will keep the population safe, it is illegal for the public to take pictures or videos of people they think are breaking quarantine, and has urged residents not to become 'balcony warriors'.

Whilst nobody should be going outside for any other than essential reasons – to the pharmacy, supermarket or any other business premises authorised to open, or to walk their dogs the minimum time possible, there could be other motives that justify a person being out on the street.

Caring for elderly, sick or disabled relatives, or being part of a neighbourhood volunteer scheme, also mean a person may be outside or in their cars, without breaking the law.

Photograph of Dr Bruce Aylward by the United Nations Regional Information Centre (UNRIC)