LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal’s fragile health system is under increasing pressure due to alarming rise in coronavirus infections, with the country reporting 10,947 new cases and 166 deaths on Saturday, the worst rise since the pandemic began. last year.
The cases, which come a day after a new lock was imposed, will bring the total number of cases in a country with just over 10 million people to 539,416, with the death toll rising to 8,709.
The number of diseases per 100,000 population has been estimated over the past 14 days at 901, nearly twice that of nearby hard Spain, data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control showed.
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 ICUs, according to Ministry of Health data.
There are currently 638 people in ICUs and the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators said the number of patients with coronavirus requiring hospitalization is likely to increase significantly over the next week.
A group of three major hospitals in Lisbon had only three intensive care beds left for coronavirus patients on Saturday morning, according to the Observador newspaper.
Media images of ambulances with coronavirus patients queuing outside hospitals in Lisbon and elsewhere while waiting to leave beds have raised concerns that the health system is close to becoming obsolete. level.
“I have received information about a patient who died in an ambulance,” Jaime Soares, head of the Portuguese Fire Brigade, told Lusa news agency, adding that hospitals are also running out of emergency stretches. .
In Porto, the country ‘s second largest city, a Sao Joao hospital is already receiving “different” patients from Lisbon as hospitals in the capital are struggling to cope, a spokesman said.
Reporting by Catarina Demony, edited by Louise Heavens