3 photos show just how health workers in Spain - which has the 2nd highest death toll in the world - are struggling under the coronavirus outbreak

Reuters

A compilation of images show medical staff in Spain on the frontlines of the coronavirus epidemic.

• Spain has been one of the hardest-hit countries during the coronavirus pandemic.
• It has been on lockdown for several weeks but recorded the highest single-day toll by any other country on April 2.
• Doctors and nurses have been complaining about a lack of protective equipment and are struggling to find space for the rising number of infected patients, as one photo of a full hospital corridor shows.
• Other photos of workers at the frontlines of the crisis also show the severe mental toll that the illness is having on those witnessing it first-hand.
• Earlier this week, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez gained approval from his parliament to extend Spain's state of emergency to April 12.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Three dramatic photos taken of health workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis in Spain - the country with the second-highest death toll in the world - show how much it continues to struggle with the outbreak.

Spanish officials announced on Thursday, April 2 that 950 people had died of the illness that day - the largest daily increase of any country in the world.

A picture of a Madrid hospital corridor filled with infected patients who would otherwise be treated in wards shows just how overwhelmed some facilities are:

Reuters

A corridor is filled with patients and medical personnel at an emergency unit of a Spanish hospital, in Getafe, outside Madrid, Spain on March 24, 2020.

Madrid is particularly hard-hit, with doctors resorting to treating thousands of patients in the IFEMA exhibition center because there is not enough space in other hospitals.

The facility released its first recovered coronavirus patient, to cheers and clapping by staff, on March 24, the Guardian reported.

Doctors and nurses in the country have also been complaining about a lack of supply of personal protective equipment, according to Business Insider Spain.

Another picture shows two nurses hugging outside Severo Ochoa Hospital in Madrid:

Susana Vera/Reuters

Medical workers hug each other outside the emergency rooms at Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganes, Spain on March 26, 2020.

Another image from the 12 de Octubre hospital shows an exhausted paramedic in his ambulance outside.

Sergio Perez/Reuters

An ambulance driver takes a break near the emergency unit at 12 de Octubre hospital in Madrid, Spain on March 28, 2020.

The feeling of despair is widespread.

"Every day I go to work, I go feeling fear, stress, and pain at being witness to this situation," Coral Merino, an ER nurse at the Príncipe de Asturias University Hospital in Alcalá de Henares, northeast of Madrid, told Business Insider Spain.

"Going to work is like going to war" said the nurse, who is responsible for administering patients with IVs and providing medication for those admitted on a daily basis.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez gained approval from his parliament to extend the state of emergency until April 12.

As of April 4, the country has the second-largest number of cases in the world after the US and the second-biggest death toll after Italy.

Last week, Spanish soldiers who were disinfecting care homes across the country found a number of elderly people abandoned or dead in their beds, according to Defence Minister María Margarita Robles Fernández.

Since its nation-wide lockdown started on March 14, Spain has seen also seen a loss of 900,000 jobs, the BBC reported, showing just how dire the economic situation is in the country.

• Read more:
• Spain's coronavirus crisis is so uncontrollable that some care-home residents have been abandoned or left dead in their beds and Madrid is using an ice rink as a makeshift morgue
• Spain, Europe's worst-hit country after Italy, says coronavirus tests it bought from China are failing to detect positive cases
• China declared whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang a 'martyr' following a local campaign to silence him for speaking out about the coronavirus
• A Spanish nurse says her country's hospitals are like 'warzones,' and that coronavirus patients are dying alone without their families

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