Isabel Diaz Ayuso, president of the Madrid Region, speaks at the closing ceremony of a field hospital built to treat COVID-19 patients in Madrid, Spain, May 1, 2020. Madrid's field hospital, which was set up at the capital's IFEMA exhibition center at the end of March to take in COVID-19 patients, was officially closed on Friday after treating some 4,000 COVID-19 patients. (Madrid Region Government/Handout via Xinhua)
MADRID, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Madrid's field hospital, which was set up at the capital's IFEMA exhibition center at the end of March to take in COVID-19 patients, was officially closed on Friday after attending around 4,000 people.
The continued fall in the number of new cases, with just 52 confirmed in the Madrid region on Friday, means that the hospital, with a capacity to care for over 3,000 patients, has been able to close its doors two weeks earlier than previously expected.
Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the President of the Madrid Region, attended the closing ceremony, where she was met by health workers who chanting "public health, public health." The last batch of patients were able to leave the facility on Friday morning.
IFEMA Director Eduardo Lopez Puertas told regional TV station TeleMadrid that the pavilions where the hospital had been established would remain "exactly the same" for the coming month.
"We will maintain the beds and the equipment throughout in May in case there is a new rise in cases," said Puertas.
Over 8,200 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in Madrid region.
