BREAKING NEWS: 14 elderly & carer at Madrid care home in Spain test positive for COVID-19

Around 14 residents and a health worker at a care home in Madrid are the latest casualties of the Coronavirus in Spain. The 99-year-old who passed away from the Coronavirus earlier this week was also a resident at this care home, according to latest reports.

Four of the residents of Residencia de Personas Mayores La Paz who are infected with the virus are now hospitalised. The other 10 remain isolated from the rest of the residents at the care home, reports Spain’s national, El Pais. The health worker is reported to be at home in isolation too.

Families of all the residents at the home have been contacted by telephone and advised to take necessary precautions if they have visited the home recently, according to Madrid’s health authority. The average age of the infected at the care home is around 80, so the group is particularly vulnerable, it adds. Data to date reveals that the virus can be lethal for at least 14% of people in this age group.

The authorities in Madrid have now advised all the other care homes and residential centres in Madrid to step up measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Amongst several measures, it recommends an isolation zone for infected patients. It also suggests that residents displaying symptoms of COVID-19 be refrained from using communal areas, such as dining rooms.