Across Spain, there are people infected with COVID-19 in need of urgent care.

Many people in the country have also been asked to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus, making it harder for them to meet basic needs.

From doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to administrators, truck drivers, supermarket cashiers, and bus drivers, people from all sorts of professions nationwide are working hard to help.

In exchange, they have asked Spaniards to stay at home, to leave the house only where absolutely essential, and to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

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"Going to work has been like going to war," nurse Coral Merino said, capturing the bleak atmosphere inside one of the hospitals situated at the center of the coronavirus crisis in Spain.

Across the country, enormous efforts have been made by thousands of nameless people to ensure the sick receive the best possible care.

Spaniards have taken to their the balconies in every city in the country to applaud its health services on their efforts to contain and manage the virus.

—María Jesús Espinosa de los Monteros (@mjesusespinosa) March 14, 2020

"Every day I go to work, I go feeling fear, stress, and pain at being witness to this situation," explained Coral Merino.

Coral is an ER nurse at the Príncipe de Asturias University Hospital in Alcalá de Henares, northeast of Madrid.

The medical center is close to Torrejón de Ardoz, one of the first sources of infection in peninsular Spain.

"These are hard times for all professionals but especially for us. We're constantly in close contact with patients," explains the nurse, responsible for administering IVs, monitoring vitals, and providing medication for those admitted on a daily basis.

Spain's police are flying drones with speakers around public places to warn citizens on coronavirus lockdown to get inside. China Daily via Reuters

Their work is essential on the front line against the pandemic.

Yet they often have to work without the personal protective equipment to which they should have access as it's been in short supply.

"There simply haven't been enough masks to change them each time we go to see an isolated patient. There weren't any proper gowns. We've just had to make do with porous ones and put plastic aprons over them," she explains.

Read more: Spain's police are flying drones with speakers around public places to warn citizens on coronavirus lockdown to get inside

"We've been reusing the goggles other colleagues have used, washing and disinfecting them ourselves," says the nurse, who has been working since 2011 in both the public and private sectors.

From working in day centers for the elderly and swimming pools to old people's homes or company's medicine supplies, Coral sometimes has to work two or three jobs in order to earn at least $1,000.

Spanish National Police officers guard the empty Larios street as part of a 15-day state of emergency in Malaga, southern Spain. Jon Nazca/Reuters

She now finds herself in a completely unprecedented situation, not just for the hospital where she works but for the whole country.

"Going to work has been like going to war. Fortunately, this situation is starting to change but we already have many, many, infected colleagues and many on leave," she explains.

Read more: Sources say Amazon has refused to close 2 Spanish warehouses despite 3 confirmed cases of COVID-19

Coral admits that she herself is less afraid of being infected, but that she is afraid of infecting her six-month-old baby, her husband, or her parents.

"I've been unable to kiss them since the beginning," she said. "The first thing I do when I come home from work is shower and scrub myself down, basically until it hurts. I'm terrified of coughing more than I ought to, of getting a fever, and of being isolated from my family, of not being able to hold or kiss my baby."

Coral's account has underlined the importance of staying home to try and stop further contagion, to flatten the epidemic curve, and help unburden emergency rooms already at maximum capacity.

"I saw little awareness around me, it made me so angry," she says. "I don't think they were very aware of how quickly this virus spreads and the damage they were causing by not staying at home. Not only because they can catch it, but because they could have an accident or a problem that would require them going to the hospital. It's just going to collapse."

Coral maintains that the hospital should be reserved for novel coronavirus cases only.

It seems the messages people have circulated online have resonated among the population: Coral says she noticed people are going to the emergency room only when they really have to.

However, procedures to avoid further contagion meant a ban on accompanying infected individuals admitted to the ER had to be instated.

"Many die alone without their families. No matter how hard you try not to, you take them home with you. And you just cry, you cry a lot," she admits.

This account is just one of many Business Insider Spain is compiling in an effort to give faces and names to many individuals assisting with the coronavirus pandemic — from doctors, nurses, assistants, and administrators to truck drivers, supermarket cashiers, stockists, and bus drivers.