Joshua Parfitt
SPAIN’S top policeman has slammed ‘irresponsible’ coronavirus patients fleeing hospital while still infected.
José Ángel González, deputy chief operating officer of Spain’s Policia Nacional, said agents have performed ‘massive localisation missions’ to catch at least four patients in Madrid over last weekend.
The four left Madrid’s Severo Ochoa de Leganés hospital after submitting to coronavirus tests – but leaving before receiving any results.
The patients, obliged to remain interned, all tested positive to Covid-19.
Medics called in the police, who had to track down the fugitives before making contact with everyone they had crossed.
Three of the four have been hit with fines for endangering public health – the most serious of the three categories of fines under Spain’s state of alarm rules.
The fourth was an elderly patient and was found disorientated in the street.
Policia Nacional have had to install a permanent post at the Leganés hospital to check patients are authorised to leave.
Police sources have said that the flight of these patients is wasting both national and local police time during the coronavirus crisis.
