Ronda hospital shuts down intensive care unit as too many staff forced into quarantine due to COVID-19

THE Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Serrania de Ronda Hospital has been forced to close due to a lack of staff.

Many of the health professionals in the Malaga unit have been sent home to quarantine after coming into contact with people carrying COVID-19.

According to the hospital, all patients have been transferred to other centres or hospitals.

“At the moment the ICU of the Serrania de Ronda Hospital is not operational due to the self-isolating being carried out by several health professionals,” it said in a statement.

The hospital described the situation as ‘exceptional’, adding that everything was being done to get the unit back up and running.

It comes as Malaga broke a new record today in terms of COVID-19 cases, recording 478 in the past 24 hours.

Andalucia also broke its own record, recording more than 1,200 cases on Friday.

Despite the sharp rise, the southernmost region continues to have one of the lowest incidences of the virus.

With a rate of 128.25 per 100,000 inhabitants, it has the third-lowest incidence after only Asturias and Galicia.

In comparison, Madrid, the hardest hit region, has an incidence rate of 535.45 per 100,000 inhabitants.

In the past seven days there have been 5,032 cases detected in Andalucia by PCR, 353 hospitalisations and 19 cases admitted into intensive care.