Hospitals in the Belgian capital called on the federal government on Wednesday to address a shortage of medicines and equipment, as coronavirus patients continue to arrive at intensive care units that are starting to fill up.
HOSPITALS ARE FOCUSED ON CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS ONLY
“Federal authorities do not seem to see or hear that the reality is that hospitals are in a massive shortage of all protective gear and drugs needed to treat coronavirus patients and other categories of equipment like syringes,” around 10 public and private hospitals said in a statement issued via the federation of hospitals and care homes for Belgium’s region of Brussels.
Some 4,995 people have been hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms in the country, meaning around half of the health services’ capacity has been taken up treating the disease. The health ministry says it expects the spread of the coronavirus that causes coronavirus to peak in the coming days and weeks.
828 DEATHS HAVE BEEN REPORTED SO FAR
“The situation is really dramatic,” the statement said, adding that the hospitals are currently working with a three-day stock of medicines and fear they would soon no longer be able to offer adequate care.
Belgium’s health ministry announced earlier on Wednesday that its stock of drugs such as curare, a drug to relax muscles of intubated patients, would last until mid-April.
Belgium reported its death toll rose by 123 to a total of 828 people on Wednesday, and its number of cases was up 1,189 to 13,964. Officials said the nation’s testing capacity would reach 10,000 daily by the end of the week.