Portugal – currently the worst hot coronavirus hotspot in the world – has just seven empty intensive care beds on the mainland set up to treat COVID-19 patients.
According to Reuters, on mainland Portugal 850 ICU beds have been set up to treat those suffering from severe symptoms of the coronavirus. On Saturday, government data showed that 843 were captured. (An additional 420 ICU beds have been established for non-coronavirus patients.)
In the past week, Portugal has had the highest death rate in the world and new per capita cases, according to the Our World in Data website. On Thursday it reached the highest number of new cases: 12,890.
Three people were taken from Lisbon to the Portuguese island of Madeira on Friday where beds are free, Reuters said, saying the justice ministry and funeral home associations were running out of space to keep the dead .
In an effort to disrupt the spread in and out of Portugal, the government on Thursday banned travel on its citizens, preventing them from leaving the country for at least 15 days.
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