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Diari de Catalunya

Six years since the first covid-19 case in Spain, which changed the country's life

The key date of January 31, 2020, marks the start of a pandemic that led to the state of alarm and lockdown.

Generic image representing a health crisis situation or an empty hospital during a lockdown.
IA

Generic image representing a health crisis situation or an empty hospital during a lockdown.

On January 31, 2020, the first positive case of covid-19 was confirmed in Spain, detected in a German tourist on the island of La Gomera, initiating an unprecedented health crisis.

Yesterday Saturday marked six years since that moment, when the National Center for Microbiology confirmed the case late at night. At the time, no one expected the disease to cause more than 100,000 deaths in the country, nor that the state of alarm and weeks of confinement would be decreed.
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"The man presented a mild condition."

Fernando Simón · Director of the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies
The day after the detection, Fernando Simón, then director of the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, appeared to explain the situation. Although initially perceived as an isolated case, the virus spread with dizzying speed, pushing health and social systems to their limit.
The first confirmed death in Spain was on March 3 in Valencia. Just eleven days later, on March 14, with nearly 6,000 positive cases and 136 deaths, the Central Government decreed the state of alarm and imposed an unprecedented lockdown that paralyzed the country.
Regarding the Lleida territory, the first case was detected on March 9, 2020, in an 84-year-old resident of Castellserà. This person died two weeks later, on March 23, marking the start of the pandemic in the region.

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