Badalona - 1 April 2020

1. Mid of nurses walking in corridor and some talking on phones

2. Nurses with protective gear handing over food platter used by patient with coronavirus

3. Nurse wearing goggles, mask and head cover speaking to another nurse

4. Nurse with protective equipment handing food platter to another nurse

5. Close of television tuned to the news featuring United States President Donald Trump

6. Nurse going into room with coronavirus patients

7. Close of sign on door that reads "STOP, restricted visits and FFP2 (referring to the appropriate type of mask)"

8. Close of nurses helping each other sanitize their hands and gloves

9. Various of nurses and assistant nurses in the middle of hospital floor

10. Close of post-it notes that read "cheer up" and "you are the best"

11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Angela Llobell, assistant nurse at hospital Germans Trias i Pujol:

"We've been overwhelmed for several days now so we are a bit more sensitive (as in vulnerable). We may be laughing now only to spend the afternoon crying. I don't know, someone will have to teach us to disconnect. But it is very hard to disconnect."

12. Various of flowers being donated to hospital for staff and patients to take home

13. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Angela Llobell, assistant nurse at hospital Germans Trias i Pujol:

"You are afraid that they (your family) will catch it, that they fall ill. Because every day you also see young people falling ill. And you think if this happens to my father, will they have enough breathing machines in case he needs one? That is what has been keeping me up at night every day. You also feel bad for the patients who are so alone."

14. Various of doctors analyzing medical documents and charts

15. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Angela Llobell, assistant nurse at hospital Germans Trias i Pujol:

"A person with multiple pathologies (pre-existing conditions), an 80-year-old, would not be able to enter the ICU right now. These breathing machines are being kept for people who have a higher chance of survival. Although it is true there are many elderly people that leave here walking (after recovering) and you say "Oh my! They are great!" it doesn't do as much damage to everyone. But it is true we are having to filter, and that is very sad."

16. Close of window

17. Various of doctors in meeting about coronavirus

Nurses and doctors treating coronavirus patients at a hospital in northeastern Spain are struggling to keep their morale up.

On the ninth floor of the Germans i Trias Pujol hospital in Badalona near Barcelona, nurses have adapted their workflow to treat patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and at the same time avoid contaminating themselves.

While one nurse or assistant nurse goes into the virus-infected rooms another stands outside and hands the other everything they may need, from medication to food platters.

As they adapt to circumstances and improvise in the face of the scarcity of protective gear, they also try to cheer each other up with post-its and good humor. But it isn't long enough before they go back to worrying about the virus which has infected more than 110,000 people in Spain.

"We may be laughing now only to spend the afternoon crying," said Angela Llobell, an assistant nurse working on the ninth floor.

Flowers are donated to the hospital almost daily. Buckets of bouquets are placed in the reception for nurses and patients to take home with them.

But many fear bringing the virus home too. After all, they've seen so many of their colleagues fall ill. They could be next.

Llobell, aged 26, doesn't return home to her family at night. They live in Valencia. She usually takes the train to visit them once a month, but last time she saw them was over the Christmas holidays.

She worries they will catch the new coronavirus even after seeing some extraordinary recoveries.

"You are afraid that they will catch it, that they fall ill," she says of her family. "Because every day you see young people falling ill. And you think: if this happens to my father, will they have enough breathing machines in case he needs one?"

She knows from experience the ventilators at the hospital she works in are being kept for the patients with the highest chance of survival.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death