‘Reprehensible’: Spanish health workers targeted and asked to leave their homes over coronavirus fears

Some of those working on the front lines fighting Covid-19 have been asked to move out, found their doors smeared with bleach, and even been spat at. Graham Keeley reports from Madrid

Doctors work at an intensive care unit in Barcelona (Getty)

When he returned home from the hospital after treating patients with coronavirus, Dr Jesus Monllor Mendez received an unwelcome surprise.

A note pinned to his door read: “Hello neighbour. We know about your good work at the hospital but you should also think of your neighbours. There are children and old people. Professionals are staying at a hotel. While this lasts we ask you to think.”

It was a less than subtle hint to leave.

“At first I felt bad and a sense of sadness. Then I thought whoever put it up must be scared or needing psychological help to get through this,” Dr Monllor tells The Independent.

Until that moment, like most doctors in Spain, he had been used to the unstinting support of a grateful public who cherished the way health workers risked their lives to try to save patients struck down with Covid-19.

Millions of Spaniards take to their balconies every night to clap for doctors and nurses on the front line of the battle against coronavirus, which has killed more than 19,000 people in the country.

However, as some struggle to cope with the fear and distrust which the pandemic breeds, doctors, nurses and supermarket workers have been targeted because a minority of people fear they run a higher risk of catching the pathogen from frontline workers.

Some have been asked to leave their homes, found their doors daubed with bleach or even been spat at.

Dr Monllor’s angry mother posted the neighbour’s letter on Facebook and it was shared by 20,000 angry supporters of the doctor.

Clara Serrano del Rey was working on a unit at a Madrid hospital where she was treating patients with coronavirus so took all the precautions to distance herself from her three flatmates.

The 31-year-old nurse developed symptoms of the virus last month and four days later she tested positive for the pathogen. She was already self-isolating when she informed the landlord and flatmates by WhatsApp.

“The landlord told me immediately that I have to leave the apartment, that I was selfish because working in that unit, and that I knew I was going to get infected,” says Serrano.

I have no interest in finding out who put up the sign. There are not many people like this in Spain. The positive response says more

Dr Jesus Monllor Mendez

“The police had to come along to explain to him that he could not just throw me out, but he insisted. I understand the fear people have. I would have left the flat anyway, but it was the manner in which this man asked me which left me feeling so bad.”

She adds: “I have been working in hospital to care for people who have the virus and I always kept my distance from people in the flat. Most people are applauding us every night so this was no doubt an exception.”

Luckily, the nursing union Satse found her a place at a hotel in Madrid.

Serrano, who worked at Leeds General Infirmary for four years between 2014 and 2018 until she returned to Spain, has now recovered from coronavirus.

She is now in self-isolation at her parents’ house in Quintanar del Rey in Castilla-La Mancha in central Spain while she recovers and finds a new nursing post.

Maria Pilar Allue, deputy director of Spain’s national police, has condemned attacks on essential workers as hate crimes.

“They are reprehensible and can be prosecuted,” she told a press conference this week.

Miriam Armero Marin, a supermarket worker in Cartagena, southeast Spain, also received a blunt message pinned to her door from neighbours because they feared her contact with customers put them at risk.

“We are your neighbours and we want to ask you for the good of all that you find another house while this goes on because we have seen you work in a supermarket. A lot of people live here. We don’t want risks.”

Furious, she responded with a video message on Facebook: “Less applause at 8pm and a little bit more empathy for people who have to work and have family.” The video went viral with 700,000 likes.

“I am not leaving my house. I know what I have to do when I get home from work. I cannot kiss my son until I have changed my clothes,” she told Cadena Ser radio station.

Ricardo Campos, an ophthalmologist at a hospital in Valencia, is among a series of leading medical figures who signed a petition against the stigmatisation of essential workers.

“They are people who are risking their lives in the front line and do not earn huge amounts. These incidents are unfortunate but in the minority,” he wrote.

Serrano says she has had many messages of support since her story emerged.

Likewise, Dr Monllor, 28, who works at Hospital Mancha Centro de Alcazar de San Juan, near Ciudad Real in central Spain, says he would rather cherish the support he has received than condemn the individual who put up the poster.

“I received letters offering me a place to stay, food, emotional support. The mayor thanked me for my work at the hospital and they put up a sign which read ‘Here is a hero’,” he says.

“I have no interest in finding out who put up the sign. There are not many people like this in Spain. The positive response says more.”