Spain to unleash swarms of disinfectant-spraying DRONES to battle coronavirus as deaths fall to lowest for a MONTH – The Sun

It comes as the third-worst hit country in the world recorded its lowest daily death toll in a month of 410.

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Spain's Health Ministry emergencies coordinator, Fernando Simon said: "'It's a number that gives us hope. It's the first time we are under 500 dead since the daily tolls began to climb".

But he also warned the number could signify a lower recording of coronavirus deaths over the weekend – with trends showing deaths beginning to climb over the week days.

The lower number was recorded on Sunday.

Spanish media originally reported the disinfectant mist could be sprayed from military aircraft but ministers were quick to refute this, pointing to a miscommunication in documents that cited "use of aerial means".

BUG-KILLING MIST

But the Ministry of Defence said this meant the spraying of aerosols on specific areas.

Miguel Angel Villarroya, chief of the Defense General Staff, said at a press conference the military aircraft theory was "completely false," and compared the spray to that of "an insecticide in a room in the home".

He added: "The order published by the Ministry of Health enables the armed forces to use aerosols, not aircraft."

Health Minister Salvador Illa also said Spain had achieved its objective of "flattening the curve" of transmissions, with numbers falling for infections too.

China – where the virus originated – has already used similar means to disinfect streets and buildings, while Spanish army specialists have been disinfecting areas of the country at ground level, using manpower and robots.

In Spain, drones are already employed to tell lockdown-flouting residents to return to their homes.

The new figures and measures point to hope for Spain, which is the third-worst affected country behind the US and Italy.

The country is set to extend their lockdown to May 9, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said, but he added measures could be altered to allow children outside from April 27.

SIGN OF HOPE

And in the capital, the second of Madrid’s three temporary morgues is set to shut on Wednesday in a fresh sign Spain is turning the tide in its fight against coronavirus.

Madrid’s regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso announced the closure of the Spanish capital’s Ice Palace as she said a field hospital opened to relieve pressure from saturated intensive care units would also shut next month.

The skating rink at the Ice Palace – Palacio de Hielo in Spanish – was the first of the three temporary morgues operating at the height of Madrid’s coronavirus crisis to open.

It started taking its first bodies on March 24 and had received the bodies of 1,1145 Covid-19 victims at the last count a few days ago.

Another ice rink used as a temporary coronavirus morgue, in Majadahonda around 10 miles north-west of

Madrid city centre, closed last week after being used for the bodies of 162 Covid-19 victims.

Wednesday’s closure will mean only one temporary morgue is still functioning in the Spanish capital, a building designed to be Madrid’s Institute of Forensic Medicine which was never opened.

The exact date for the closure in May of the Ifema field hospital, another of the landmark emergency centres which has symbolised Spain’s response to the coronavirus crisis and at one point was treating 1,500 Covid-19 patients, has not yet been made public.

Mrs Diaz Ayuso said: “Ifema was conceived as a hospital for this crisis but it needs to return to its origin.”

She later took to Twitter to post a photograph of her standing on a balcony for the daily 8pm applause for the emergency services and write: “A rainbow in the sky in Madrid at 8pm.

“It’s a sign. The comeback has started.”

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