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Coronavirus live news: Spain investigates ‘criminal mishandling’ of care home deaths; Portugal shuts schools | World news


Angel Juarez, whose 95-year-old mother Leonor died from the virus at a Barcelona care home, sued the regional health department over alleged mismanagement of such facilities for the elderly and infirm. “It’s not about political beliefs, everything failed. It is a matter of justice: they died an undignified death,” he told Reuters by phone. “We want to shine a light on the negligence and clarify who was responsible.”

Nearly 43,000 care home residents died of confirmed or suspected Covid infections during the March-May first wave of contagion, according to official data. At the time, staff reported shortages of basic protective equipment, and army units deployed on disinfection missions discovered unattended bodies at several facilities.

In a statement, the public prosecutor’s office said nearly half of its investigations related to homicide through a neglect of duty of care, while it was looking into 21 cases of deficiencies in medical treatment. With Spain reporting record infection numbers on an almost daily basis, it warned that risks still remained across the care home network, even though health authorities expect to have most residents vaccinated in the coming weeks.

Pre-existing weaknesses, including governance, funding, working conditions, a lack of coordination with primary health care, and a lack of isolation spaces, are still widespread, the prosecutors’ report said.



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