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Diari de Catalunya

Six years since the first COVID-19 case in Spain: From La Gomera to lockdown

Six years are commemorated since the first positive case was detected in a German tourist, an event that preceded over 100,000 deaths.

A silhouette of a person looking at a map of the Canary Islands, symbolizing the origin of the pandemic in Spain.
IA

A silhouette of a person looking at a map of the Canary Islands, symbolizing the origin of the pandemic in Spain.

On January 31, 2020, the first positive coronavirus case was confirmed in a German tourist on the Canary Island of La Gomera, marking the start of a pandemic that transformed the country.

This past Saturday marked exactly six years since the National Center for Microbiology confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in Spain. At that time, health authorities, including Fernando Simón, then director of the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, perceived the situation as an isolated case with mild symptoms.
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"The man presented a mild condition."

Fernando Simón · Director of the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies
This initial perception quickly changed. The virus spread rapidly, with the first death confirmed in València on March 3. Just eleven days later, on March 14, with almost 6,000 positive cases and 136 deaths, the Government decreed the state of alarm and imposed an unprecedented lockdown that pushed health and social systems to their limit.
Regarding the Lleida region, the first case was detected on March 9 of that year in an 84-year-old resident of Castellserà. Unfortunately, two weeks later, on March 23, the patient died, highlighting the severity of the situation.

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