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“Many countries in the Northern Hemisphere are currently experiencing a worrying increase in hospital admissions and cases,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva. In some places, intensive care units filled up quickly. For example, capacity limits had already been reached in regions of Belgium, Great Britain and the Czech Republic. In the Belgian province of Liège, dozens of doctors and nurses are on duty in fully overloaded clinics, according to trade unionists, despite the corona infection. According to the EU health authority ECDC, Belgium is the country with the most corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days; this value was 1390.9 on Tuesday. The patients were also transferred to Aachen across the German border.
France and Belgium before the blockade
Stand in view of Corona’s dramatic situation France Y Belgium apparently before a new blockade. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Tuesday before a cabinet crisis meeting that “tough decisions” are inevitable. In the French-speaking part of the country of Belgium and in the capital, Brussels, there was already a “partial closure”, and in Flanders there was a crisis meeting on the same measures that night. In Italy, meanwhile, anger and despair grew over increasingly stringent requirements.
Also in Britain The situation is very tense. According to media reports, the capacity of the first clinics in the Greater Manchester area is exhausted. The problem: the NHS of the national health service is chronically underfunded. Even with a winter flu outbreak, many clinics cannot cope with the flood of patients. Thousands of operations have already been canceled and the government has built several makeshift clinics. Many doctors and nurses died during the first wave of the outbreak. In the absence of protective clothing and proper masks, some even tried to arm themselves against the virus with garbage bags. Even today there is a lack of evidence. According to the statistics authority, there are more than 61,000 death certificates showing a corona infection.
Staff shortages in Czech hospitals
Czech Republic It has decided to take drastic measures like a night curfew to prevent hospitals from being overloaded within two weeks. The Health Ministry ordered that planned operations at all clinics be postponed. Of the total of nearly 4,000 intensive care beds, only about 1,100 are still available for Covid patients and all other patients. Lack of staff is a big concern. According to the Medical Association, more than 13,000 employees in the healthcare sector have been infected with Corona. Most keep working if you don’t have symptoms.
In Russia Moscow, the capital, is particularly hard hit, where temporary hospitals have also been built. According to official figures on Tuesday, more than 1,200 Covid 19 patients were brought to clinics there in one day. There are reports from the regional media that many hospitals are already overloaded, patients are being treated in the corridors, and doctors are missing.
Health systems in Lithuania and Latvia on the brink of collapse
Prospects for small countries are bleak Lithuania Y Latvia. “If this continues, the health system, one of the weakest in Europe, could collapse in a month,” Liene Cipule, head of the emergency service, told a debate in the Latvian parliament. Also in Hungary and the Balkans, experts worry that the health system is underfunded in many places and there is a lack of doctors and nurses. Any deviation from the usual course can trigger chaotic conditions, it is said.
In France the situation is particularly tense in Paris and in the southeast of the country. On Monday there were about 2,770 seriously ill people in intensive care units, that’s about half the total capacity. Many regions of Spain are also under pressure. In Madrid and Aragon, more than 40 percent of intensive care beds are already occupied by Covid-19 patients. In Italy, authorities have already warned of a “high probability” that capacities in various regions will soon become insufficient.
Germany’s staff shortage is “a much bigger problem”
In Germany There is no shortage of intensive care beds, but there is a lack of nursing staff. So said the president of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine, Uwe Janssens, the newspapers of the Funke media group (Tuesday). Now there is “enough capacity for intensive care beds and free ventilators.” But that alone does not help “if we do not have staff to care for patients.” Herein lies “the much bigger problem.” Roughly estimated, there was a shortage of 3,500 to 4,000 intensive care specialists nationwide, Janssens said.
The Covid working group of the Swiss According to a media report, the government estimates that intensive care beds will be fully occupied by mid-November if infections continue to rise. Dutch hospitals can barely bear the pressure of the growing number of patients. Many operations have been canceled. About one out of every two beds in intensive care units is now occupied by a Covid 19 patient. The first two patients have already been flown to Münster. More will follow.
“Many” hospital beds in Denmark
The situation in the five Nordic countries is much more relaxed Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland. A senior doctor said that there was still a lot of space in Danish hospitals.
More than 40 million infections have been detected worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic. More than a million people have died from the Covid-19 disease.
The WHO chief expressed his understanding that many people feel “pandemic fatigue.” The psychological and physical stress of working from home and the distance with friends and family are high. Still, people shouldn’t give up. However, above all, health systems and the people who work for them must be protected. WHO asked people to take all precautions to avoid infection. This is the only way to guarantee more locks
