Dilip Kuner
KING Felipe VI has been visiting the emergency hospital set up in
Madrid’s massive IFEMA conference centre for coronavirus patients.
Spain’s monarch was accompanied by the Minister of Defence, Margarita
Robles, and the Mayor of Madrid, Jose Luis Martinez Almeida at this
morning’s inspection.
The hospital, which has been set up by the Community of Madrid, the
Ministry of Health and the Military Emergency Unit (MEU), is expected to
have 1,400 beds ready by next week.
Plans are in place to extend this to a total of 5,500 should it be
needed – making it Spain’s biggest hospital.
The wards have been set up in pavilions seven and nine, where the first
1,300 conventional beds plus 96 intensive care unit beds are being
installed across 35,000 square metres of space.
The two pavilions have enough room for a total of 2,000 beds with a
space of three metres between each one.
If more beds are needed, additional pavilions will be opened up.
IFEMA is also opening its doors to provide shelter for the homeless
during the coronavirus crisis.
The first patients started arriving at the facility on Saturday night.
