The Minister for Universal Health and Public Health, Ana Barceló, appeared this morning to update information on the incidence of coronavirus in the Valencian Community. Barceló has indicated that 185 new positive cases are confirmed, bringing the total of positive cases to 726, of which 252 are admitted to the hospital.
Of the 185 new positive cases, the highest number has occurred in the province of Alicante with 103 cases, 14 are in the province of Castellón and 68 in that of Valencia. Of all of them, 95 are men, 90 are women and among them there are 3 children under 14 years of age.
By provinces, the total number of positive cases is 54 in the province of Castellón (19 hospitalized and 2 in the ICU), 293 in the province of Alicante (105 hospitalized and 17 in the ICU), and 377 in the province of Valencia (128 hospitalized and 21 in the ICU). Also, there are 2 cases not assigned yet because their data is being checked.
On the other hand, the minister has regretted the 22 deaths that have occurred in the Region: 1 in the province of Castellón, 10 in that of Valencia and 11 in that of Alicante. At the same time, it has announced that, until 20 hours on Tuesday, there have been a total of 16 discharges: 1 in the province of Castellón, 5 in that of Alicante and 10 in the province of Valencia.
With respect to the tests that have given a negative result so far, there are 4.564. In addition, at number 900, since it was launched, almost 22.300 calls have been answered and the self-test included on the website of the Ministry of Health has received more than 1.650.000 visits.
New measures for nursing homes
The Ministry of Health has also updated the situation of coronavirus outbreaks that have occurred in two nursing homes in the Valencian Community. In this sense, he recalled that "These situations are especially worrying, both in the Valencian Community and in Spain as a whole"Therefore "In the face of these outbreaks, we must exercise extreme caution and focus all our efforts on containing the virus, since we are dealing with people with greater vulnerability and are spaces of coexistence and contact between them."
For this reason, this Wednesday a resolution will be issued to empower the Department of Health to put under its control and protection those residences, public or private, in which there is an outbreak of coronavirus. In this way, the health personnel under the Ministry will be able to take whatever measures they deem necessary within the residence for the control and treatment of the pandemic, and they will have full powers in the health field over all the personnel assigned to the centers.
For this, before the outbreak of coronavirus in a residence, the Ministry of Health will designate a person in charge of the health department, who will have the material and human resources it requires, to take charge of the care activity of the elderly centers.
In addition, the Ministry of Health will have full inspection capacity in all nursing home centers to assess their situation and determine the measures it deems appropriate. These measures will be in effect for the duration of the pandemic.
