25 March 2020•Update: 26 March 2020
By Alyssa McMurtry
OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo tested positive for the coronavirus, the government confirmed Wednesday.
Calvo, 62, has been hospitalized with a respiratory infection since Sunday. She had previously taken a test that was negative.
Two other ministers also tested positive. Each, along with Calvo, attended a massive International Women’s Day march in Madrid on March 8, just two days before large gatherings were banned in Spain.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s wife also attended the protest and was confirmed to have the virus March 14.
On Tuesday, it was reported that the Moncloa Palace, where Sanchez lives and work, was disinfected.
Calvo’s last public contact with Sanchez was early last week, according to media reports.
Calvo, a member of the Socialist Party, has been criticized for choosing to be treated in the Ruber Juan Bravo clinic -- a private hospital with large, comfortable rooms.
Hundreds of other patients with COVID-19 in Madrid are currently being treated in a makeshift hospital that was set up in the city’s largest conference center.
Spain has the second highest number of confirmed cases and death toll in Europe after Italy.
As of Wednesday, the country recorded 47,610 confirmed cases and 3,434 deaths. More than 5,300 patients recovered.
After emerging in Wuhan, China last December, the virus has spread to at least 172 countries and regions.
Out of more than 451,000 confirmed cases globally, the death toll now nears 21,000, while an excess of 112,000 have recovered, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.
