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Portugal’s government was encouraged to move COVID-19 patients out of the country on Tuesday as deaths from the disease hit a record high and the oxygen supply system of a major hospital in the Lisbon region failed in part. due to overuse.
Deaths caused by Covid-19 in the last 24 hours reached a record 291, bringing the country’s total to 653,878 cases and 11,012 deaths. The country now has the highest weekly average of cases and deaths per million people, according to ourworldindata.org.
The Amadora municipality hospital had to transfer 48 of its patients to other health units in the capital on Tuesday night, since the oxygen pressure was not enough for a large number of patients, according to a statement from the institution.
“It was necessary to reduce oxygen consumption, so the patients were transferred,” said the hospital, which has almost no free beds. “They were never in danger.”
Reports showed ambulances rushing through the main doors of the hospital to pick up patients, while some were escorted out by police.
Twenty patients were transferred to Lisbon’s largest hospital, Santa Maria, which on Tuesday installed two refrigerators outside its 30-body morgue, the hospital spokesman said.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said at a press conference that there is no need to create “alarm” about the idea of international aid, but added: “We know that friendly countries are available to help.”
The Minister of Health, Marta Temido, told the RTP radio station on Monday: “The Portuguese government is looking for all available mechanisms, including in the international framework, to guarantee the best assistance to patients.”
But Temido noted that patient transfers would be limited by Portugal’s location at the western tip of Europe, especially as other nations in the European Union are also under pressure.
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