The Madrid Government on Friday announced plans to set up a 5,500-bed hospital on convention centre land as the number of coronavirus cases rose 16 per cent to hit 20,000, with more than 1,000 deaths.
The Head of Emergency Health Service, Mr Fernando Simon, said Madrid had the bulk of the country’s cases with more than 7,000, with Catalonia in second place with more than 3,000.
The emergency clinic will be set up on land belonging to the Ifema convention centre on the outskirts of Madrid.
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It will be equipped to treat patients who required intensive care.
The country is about halfway through a 15-day lockdown designed to slow the march of the coronavirus, which has spread worldwide since appearing in China in December.
However, authorities said they hoped the infections would soon top off, therefore, slowing the spread of the virus.