Barcelona doctor's car daubed with 'contagious rat' as fearful neighbours target essential workers

A Barcelona doctor had her car sprayed with the words "contagious rat" amid rising accounts of abuse to health workers during the coronavirus epidemic.

While millions of Spaniards join in the daily applause for medical staff at 8pm, unions have asked for professionals to be given extra protection as some neighbours and landlords seek to encourage them to leave their homes for fear of spreading the disease.

Silvana Bonino, a gynaecologist from Barcelona, reported the vandalising of her car to the police.

"At first, I couldn't believe it; it made no sense. I felt surprised and sad to receive this attack," she told the EFE news agency.

The neighbours of a Barcelona doctor fear she is bringing the coronavirus home with her. Photo / NY Times

Clara Serrano, a nurse from Cuenca who works in Madrid, was forced to abandon the room she was renting after her landlord found out she had tested positive for Covid-19. Unable to travel to her family home, she checked into a hotel.

Health professionals and supermarket cashiers have posted images on social media of notes asking them to live elsewhere.

Jesús Monllor, a doctor from Ciudad Real, came home one day to find an anonymous letter pinned to his door, thanking him for his "good work" at the hospital, but telling him to "think of his neighbours, including children and the elderly", and suggesting he moved to accommodation in another town.

The health workers' branch of Spain's CCOO union condemned such actions in a statement.

"It is incomprehensible that those people who are putting their lives on the line day in day out to get us out of this health crisis […] should be recognised with applause every day while at the same time suffering discrimination from landlords or their community".

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website