Changes

[[File:Logo Monografía.jpg|leftright|thumb|300px|Map: Beds in medicalised hotels during the first wave of the pandemic. 2020. Spain.]]

 The resources put into action to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic are hard to be quantified because of the many different stakeholders involved, the heterogeneity of the actions taken and their sometimes intangible nature; proof of the latter was the significant solidarity movement that took place during the hardest times of the first wave of the pandemic (see chapter on ''[[Solidarity Actions | Solidarity Actions]]''). This chapter focuses, however, on two aspects that may help understand the swift response of the public administrations to the extraordinary situation from March 2020. It first shows some indicators on the effort made in the health field as well as the experience at ''Lozano Blesa University Hospital'' in Saragossa (Zaragoza). Second, the text delves into how the Armed Forces participated in this deployment, what took place under Operation Balmis. There is no reliable record of which new resources were put into action during the first wave of the pandemic aimed at fighting the coronavirus and reducing its impact. Some decisive links in the process of building an effective response were for instance the financial efforts of the public administration, the initiatives that came from within society both individually and in groups, the dedication of the medical staff and the donations from companies.A first indicator depicting the changes that took place in hospitals was the increased availability of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, which is shown by regions on the map ''[[:File: Evolution of ICU beds during the first wave of the pandemic|Evolution of ICU beds during the first wave of the pandemic]]''. There were 150% more ICU beds (excluding newborns) towards the beginning of April 2020 than in January 2020 in the public and private healthcare systems –including both beds with and without ventilators–. After the peak of the first wave of the pandemic, a decrease was registered in early June; even so, there were 78% more ICU beds occupied at the end of the first semester of 2020 than at the beginning of the year.

Some other actions were also taken in order to increase the capacity to accommodate the growing number of infected people requiring hospital admission, e.g. hotel beds were medicalised and field hospitals were built as presented on the map on ''[[:File:Beds in medicalised hotels during the first wave of the pandemic that |Beds in medicalised hotels during the first wave of the pandemic]]'' shows the result of this action, with a large number of beds being made available in non-medical centres.