‘My life would be at risk if I stayed’: 89-year-old man flees care home after string of coronavirus deaths

Country in deep state of shock after news that army found elderly residents dead and abandoned in care homes, Graham Keeley reports from Madrid

Workers prepare to clean the nursing home where a woman died and several residents and care providers have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Grado, Asturias (Reuters)

Rafael Garcia, an 89-year-old retired government official, noticed one of his carers at the Residencia Orfea care home in Madrid had been crying.

“Has someone died?” he asked her. She told him she had seen six of the home’s residents die in one day from coronavirus.

Garcia decided he did not want to suffer the same fate. He left the old people’s home, which he had moved into after his wife passed away, and went to live with his daughter on 20 March. Since then, 11 people have died at the residence.