Spain "Please give me your hand because you are all I have now," the old woman told Maria desperately, a nursing home employee in Madrid.

What Maria wanted to do the most after a long day at the nursing home was seeking little comfort from her children at home, something she had to hold herself back for almost a month now.

"I want to hug my kids, but I'm so scared I won't dare to do it for the past three weeks. I haven't had a nCoV test so I don't know if I'm infected," Maria said.

Whenever she got home, instead of hugging her, Maria took off her shoes from the door and went straight to the bathroom and always reminded herself to wear a mask all the time. The rigorous measures that Maria imposes on herself make her miserable, but it is necessary.

Spanish health officials are racing to disinfect nursing homes across the country, which is considered one of the front lines of a medical crisis called Covid-19. Spain has recorded nearly 120,000 infected people and more than 11,000 people died from nCoV, becoming the third largest epidemic region in the world, after only the US and Italy.

According to Maria's calculations, 50 residents of the nursing home on the outskirts of Madrid, where she works, have died in the past three weeks, while about 90 others were isolated.

"Every member of the hospital who had been tested had a positive result. When announcing the number of positive cases, the doctor said, 'Dear God, everything is too late. Perhaps everyone here is positive. ", Maria said.

Despite this, Maria and her colleagues have not yet been tested or equipped with the necessary protective gear. She said they were provided masks, but had to make their own protective vests from garbage bags. According to CSIF, Spain's largest union, two nursing home workers in the Madrid area died from nCoV, while another 400 were infected. About 14% of Spain's nCoV infections are health workers.

The Madrid regional government on Tuesday activated an emergency plan to deal with Covid-19 and mobilized medical, civil security and firefighters to 470 elderly care facilities in the area. field. Response teams have approached 100 facilities as of April 3.

Isabel Diaz Ayuso, president of Madrid, said on April 2 that about 3,000 died of various causes at the regional nursing homes in March. Last week, her government said 1,065 residents of The nursing home in Madrid died in the first three weeks of March. This disparity shows that the number of deaths in nursing homes has increased rapidly in just a few days.

"Having to see that and knowing that you can't do anything is really difficult. Every day people are going to die. You want to do everything you can, but the employees keep getting infected." There are few people in the hospital and nursing homes, "said Maria.

While nursing home workers race against time, the elderly face loneliness when quarantined. Some are lucky to have a phone to talk to family, but others do not. "They were trapped in their room. They were bewildered and scared not knowing what was happening," she said.

The Spanish Defense Minister revealed last week that soldiers of the Spanish military's rescue team, when disinfecting nursing homes, discovered many elderly people abandoned to death in bed. This unit is not the only force in Spain tasked with disinfecting nursing homes to save the lives of many elderly people.

Javier Martínez Garcia, 50, has been a ranger for 14 years. The worst situation he has ever faced is putting out wild fires and dealing with bandits. But over the past two weeks, he and his ranger team and other volunteers have been tasked with disinfecting nursing homes in the Soria region, 230 kilometers northeast of Madrid.

"We try to be happy when we enter a nursing home. We greet people because maybe many old people will find it very strange to see us dressed like that. They only see this protective gear." in movies or documentaries, "Garcia said.

Garcia told his girlfriend about this special mission but did not disclose it to his parents. "I don't want them to know and worry," he said.

After a few days on the mission, Garcia's initial fears have now disappeared, replaced by action and a sense of responsibility.

"I guess it's like fighting a fire: if you're not used to it, you're worried because you have to find a way to deal with things you've never seen before. But once you put out the fire, you'll be calmer and know what to do, "Garcia said.

Luis Encinas is more familiar with situations like this, because he is an expert in infectious diseases.

"I have certain experiences in dealing with outbreaks when there is limited human, material and logistics resources," Encinas said. He is the coordinator of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) organization, who has dealt with more than 10 viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks, including Ebola, and has worked in war zones such as Afghanistan and Angola.

However, when doing the same task on his own home, Encinas still felt something strange. MSF has set up field hospitals to help ease the burden on the overloaded Spanish health system.

"You want to support the home health system, but it's really strange. It's a mixed feeling of sadness and the will to help the homeland. We used to work in Spain during the crisis." panic migration, but it's not like this situation, "Encinas said.

He said that no other health system in the world has been able to cope with this pandemic, adding that Europe and many other developed regions have not seen a crisis on such a scale since. World War II and the Spanish flu in 1918.

"That means we have had generations of people growing up peacefully and healthily, making our lives grow every year. So now, everyone will have the same idea 'Oh, how can I imagine this. 'Now the number one priority is to save people, but once the pandemic is over, it's important to analyze and learn from it, "he said.

One of these lessons is humility, planning and preparation. "Look at things like what the plan would be if 40 Covid-19 patients came to my emergency room tomorrow? What if 400 or 4,000 people? What to do?", Encinas said.

Maria's personal plan now is to try to overcome each day, prepare to deal with the next day and suppress fear, fatigue and risk of infection to the lowest possible level.

"Last week, I had a bad day when so many people died and no one seemed to care. I was so tired and depressed that when I came back, I said 'Enough. Mom needs to rest. take a few days off to restore your spirit '", she said.

"If the old men and women there are going to die, they will surely die. But if mom doesn't go to work, everything with them will be worse. I need to go and do everything I can", daughter Maria looked into her mother's eyes and said.

The girl's words helped Maria to lift her spirits and decided to continue trying as long as she could. She and her colleagues are the only ones still in contact with lonely elderly residents in nursing homes.

"One day, an old lady, who hadn't seen her daughter for two weeks, wanted to hug and kiss me. But I couldn't because we weren't allowed to. But the old lady still wanted to hold my hand because they are now. I was everything to her, "Maria recalls.