Romanian hospitals overrun with COVID-19 patients

Patients lie on beds in the emergency room, turned into a CODIV-19 unit due to the high number of cases, at the Bagdasar-Arseni hospital in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021. Romania reported on Tuesday nearly 17,000 new COVID-19 infections and 442 deaths, the highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in a day since the pandemic started, as the nation's health care system struggles to cope with an acute surge of new cases.(AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
By Dénes Albert
2 Min Read

Romania’s hospital system is on the verge of disaster, with more than 1,900 coronavirus patients waiting in hospital admissions departments for beds to be released for them, Interior Minister Lucian Bode told the press on Monday, adding that the healthcare situation in Romania was “critical.”

The minister said about 300 of the patients waiting in hospitals would need an intensive care bed. Earlier, the Romanian press reported that ambulances are lining up in front of hospitals, waiting for the doctors to take over the patients they are transporting

In many cases, hospitals can only offer seats to severely ill coronavirus patients. The minister reiterated that in Romania, an average of 15,000 people are infected with the coronavirus every day and an average of 300 die as a result of the disease.

As Remix News reported earlier, Hungary took over 50 patients from Romania for intensive care, and patients were transported to clinics in Szeged and Debrecen.

The third COVID-19 infection wave is currently peaking in Romania with patient numbers some 60 percent above the first major wave last November and twice as high as during the second wave this May. Meanwhile, only about 30 percent of the country’s 19.3 million inhabitants are fully vaccinated.

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