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The pro-independence leader of Catalonia, the region of Spain hardest hit by the coronavirus after Madrid, has abandoned his government’s initial reluctance to seek help from the Spanish army, saying any assistance would be gratefully received, reports Sam Jones from Madrid.

Last month, Quim Torra’s separatist administration said the Spanish military was not needed in the region. But as the region confirmed 21,804 cases of the virus and 2,093 deaths on Thursday, Torra asked for help from the army.

“If they can help us – and if any doctor can come and help us – I’d be very grateful,” he told Radio Ser Catalunya.

However, while Torra admitted that his government had not kept people sufficiently informed about the desperate situation in Catalonia’s care homes – where 362 people have died from the virus – he said his government was bearing the brunt of the health crisis when it came to resources.

“We haven’t received any tests from the Spanish state,” he said.

“The Catalan government is providing 90% of the resources, with the other 10% coming from the Spanish state.”

Catalonia’s health minister, Alba Vergés, also appealed for assistance from the Spanish military, which is already disinfecting old people’s homes in the region and helping to set up a large field hospital in a conference centre in Barcelona.

“We need hands,” Vergés told Catalunya Ràdio. “And by ‘hands’, I also mean that if the army has doctors and nurses, they should be made available to us.”

Relations between the Catalan regional government and the central government have been severely strained since Torra’s predecessor and close ally, Carles Puigdemont, made a unilateral and unlawful attempt to secede from Spain in October 2017.