LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal’s public health system is on the verge of collapse as hospitals in the worst-hit areas hit by a sharp rise in coronavirus cases are rapidly running out of intensive care beds to treat COVID-19 patients to handle.
“Our health system is in a state of extreme pressure,” Health Minister Marta Temido told reporters Sunday afternoon after a visit to a struggling hospital. “There is an end and we are very close.”
The health system, which had the pandemic with the lowest number of emergency care beds per 100,000 residents in Europe, can accept a maximum of 672 COVID-19 patients in care units intensive, or ICUn, according to health ministry data.
The number of people in ICUs with COVID-19 reached 647 Sunday, according to the health authority’s DGS. The Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators said the number of coronavirus patients requiring hospitalization is likely to increase significantly over the next week.
Three days into national lockout, the nation of just 10 million people reported 10,385 new cases and 152 deaths on Sunday, bringing the total number of diseases to 549,801, with the death toll rising to 8,861 .
According to the Oxford University-sponsored website ourworldindata.org, Portugal had the highest per capita number of coronavirus cases in Europe over the past seven days.
The majority of new cases were collected in Lisbon, where many patients at the city’s public hospitals were relocated, including to health units in the second largest city in the city. the country of Porto.
“We are already treating patients beyond our installed capacity,” said Daniel Ferro, director of the largest hospital in Lisbon, Santa Maria. “And we are not the only hospital where this is happening. ”
Garcia de Orta Hospital, across the Tagus River from Lisbon, said in a statement that the hospital could go into a “pre-disaster” phase as there are no longer beds for coronavirus patients.
Reciting with Catarina Demony; Edited by Jonathan Oatis