- Title: Madrid re-stocks free COVID tests as shortage bites and infections soar
- Date: 28th December 2021
- Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (DECEMBER 28, 2021) (REUTERS) PEOPLE QUEUING TO GET FREE COVID-19 TEST KITS OUTSIDE PHARMACY, WOMAN OPENING PHARMACY'S DOOR VARIOUS OF PEOPLE QUEUING TO GET FREE COVID-19 TEST KITS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MADRID RESIDENT AND TAXI DRIVER, MIGUEL JESUS ARROYO, SAYING: "You have to get up early, because if you don't come soon, they run out in a flash. Here what is given for free is quickly used. If it costs money, nobody would come here, but as they are free everybody comes." EXTERIOR OF PHARMACY / PEOPLE QUEUING TO GET FREE COVID-19 TEST KITS PEOPLE QUEUING TO GET FREE COVID-19 TEST KITS VARIOUS OF WORKER CARRYING BOXES WITH FREE COVID-19 TEST KITS THAT ARRIVED AT PHARMACY PEOPLE AT PHARMACY PHARMACIST CRISTINA SANCHEZ OPENING COVID-19 TEST KIT BOX AND SAYING (UPSOUND) (Spanish) "These are the ones we got, a box with two, four, six, eight, ten, twenty (tests), and there is a long queue of 30 people waiting outside and we don't have more to give them. Each person comes with three or four health cards, this is finished with the first few people." / PHARMACIST SHOWING TEST KITS PHARMACIST SERVING MAN FREE COVID-19 TESTS MAN CARRYING FREE COVID-19 TESTS AND LEAVING PHARMACY PEOPLE WAITING OUTSIDE PHARMACY (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MADRID RESIDENT FROM ECUADOR AND CONSTRUCTION WORKER, CRISTOBAL CAMPOVERDE, SAYING: "I came today at six o'clock in the morning because last week I came on Wednesday and I didn't make it, there were about 8 people before me and each one was going to take several test kits, so they ran out. I came today at 6am to see if I could get them, and I did, but only 20 (tests) arrived." PEOPLE INSIDE PHARMACY (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PHARMACIST CRISTINA SANCHEZ SAYING: "What happened today, as it does every day, is that we only got one box of 25 (test kits) and, of course, if the first two or three people come with 5 or 6 (health) cards, we can't give them more. So, for the people who are waiting outside, who are cold, who have been waiting for a long time, we can't give them anymore. And then the computer system to access the card details in saturated, so we have to take their ID and health card details and do it manually." PEOPLE INSIDE PHARMACY EXTERIOR OF PHARMACY
- Embargoed: 11th January 2022 12:48
- Keywords: COVID-19 Madrid PCR Spain antigen tests coronavirus pharmacy tests
- Location: MADRID, SPAIN
- City: MADRID, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Topics: Europe,Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001F9YCA4N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Demand for free home testing kits provided by Madrid's regional government far outstripped supply on Tuesday (December 28) after days of shortages and long queues outside pharmacies a day after Spain's infection rate surpassed 1,000 cases per 100,000 people for the first time.
Pharmacist Cristina Sanchez said she had only received 20 test kits to distribute on Tuesday. As the first few people in line take several tests each, most have to return home empty handed.
"The people who are waiting outside, who are cold, who have been waiting for a long time, we can't give them anymore," she told Reuters at her pharmacy in the outskirts of Madrid
Taxi driver Miguel Jesus Arroyo was one of the lucky few to secure a test.
"You've got to get up early, because if you don't come soon, they run out in a flash," he said.
Spain's coronavirus infection rate exceeded 1,000 cases per 100,000 people for the first time on Monday (December 27), stoked by the fast-spreading Omicron variant, although hospitals were under much less strain than in previous waves of the pandemic.
The rate, measured over the preceding 14 days, rose to 1,206 cases following the Christmas weekend, according to health ministry data. That compares with 911 reported on Thursday, when it first topped the previous record of 900 cases set in late January.
The tally had not been updated since Thursday and has added 214,619 new cases to the 5,932,626 recorded since the start of the pandemic.
The ministry added 120 deaths to its coronavirus death toll since Thursday, bringing the total to 89,139.
Daily deaths have been hovering below 100, sharply lower than some 1,000 at the peak of the first wave last year or about 600 last January, when vaccination against COVID-19 had only just begun.
Hospital occupancy with coronavirus patients rose to 7.69% from Thursday's 6.4%, remaining much below 24% registered in late January. Intensive-care occupancy reached 18.26%, after January's 43%.
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