LebanonThe health minister warned Monday that hospitals are reaching maximum capacity to treat Covid-19. The country has seen a spike in coronavirus-related cases and deaths in recent weeks and its medical system has been under enormous pressure since the massive explosion that ripped through Beirut two weeks ago.
The World Health Organization on August 12 said that more than half of the 55 health care institutions evaluated by the agency were “non-functional”, three major hospitals were out of operation and another three ran well below normal capacity.
“Public and private hospitals in the capital in particular have a very limited capacity, both in terms of beds in intensive care units and respirators,” the minister, Hamad Hassan, told a news conference.
“We are on the brink, we do not have the luxury of taking our time,” he warned, urging authorities to take the “hard decision” to set up a new two-week lockdown to spread the virus. restrict.
The country reported a one-day record of 456 new infections on Monday, bringing the total number of infections to 9,337, including 105 deaths since the outbreak began in February.
An earlier planned lockdown was shocked in the wake of the explosion, which collapsed for weeks near the harbor and left thousands homeless.
“In the capital, the intensive care units and wards set up for the coronavirus in public hospitals are full,” the minister told Voice of Lebanon radio.
“In most private hospitals that receive coronavirus patients, beds for intensive care units are (already) occupied,” by Covid-19 patients, he added.
The minister said chaos in Beirut following the explosion, the worst in the Lebanese peace crisis, made it difficult to enforce pandemic precautionary and preventive measures.
“Our ability to control behavior in the face of the virus is more limited,” the minister said.
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