Spanish public prosecutors said Wednesday they have opened an investigation into a Madrid retirement home where 19 people might have died from the coronavirus. Relatives of residents at the Monte Hermoso facility told AFP and other media that at least 70 of its 130 residents were infected and in isolation, and at least 15 had died from COVID-19. A report from the company that runs the facility obtained by daily newspaper El Pais says 19 people who lived at the retirement home had died. The public prosecutors' office for the province of Madrid said it has opened a criminal investigation after receiving a complaint from an association called the Patients Ombudsman saying that "at least" 19 people had died at the home. In a letter, the president of the association denounced an "extreme lack of security and cleanliness, staff and means" at the facility. The death of elderly people in Spain made the front pages of newspapers on Wednesday, with at least seven deaths reported at a private facility in the central town of Tomelloso. The coronavirus outbreak has had a "significant impact" on retirement homes, the health ministry's emergencies coordinator, Fernando Simon, told a news conference. The ministry was working on a protocol to "reduce the risks in these types of centres", he added. The regional government of Valencia in the southeast has said it will bring all retirement homes affected by a coronavirus outbreak, including private ones, under its control. lbx/ds/pmr/wai