Slovakia and the Czech Republic are asking other countries for help in treating Covid-19 patients / Article / LSM.lv

The World Health Organization warned this week that Covid-19 is currently spreading rapidly, especially in Central Europe. The most contagious type of coronovirus detected in the UK is causing problems. In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, hospitals are overcrowded, and both are asking other countries to accept their Covid patients. Several were transferred from Slovakia to Germany today.

Covid-19 patients in need of artificial respiration were transferred from Slovakia to the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia by a specially designated aircraft on Saturday, March 6. Due to the influx of hospitalized people, the Slovak health care system is overburdened and Germany has joined Poland in response to Slovakia’s request for assistance. The first patients were transferred to Poland this week. Germany, on the other hand, has previously admitted Covid-19 patients from France and the Netherlands.

As hospitals become increasingly congested, a curfew was introduced in Slovakia this week, reinforcing existing measures such as restrictions on movement between municipalities.

In addition, a government crisis erupted this week over Russia’s Sputnik vaccines, the purchase of which was secretly agreed by the Slovak prime minister, despite objections from two coalition parties.

There are currently more than four thousand patients in hospitals in Slovakia with a population of five and a half million.

“We have around 650 employees, 100 of whom are currently on sick leave due to Covid. 70 percent of physicians work with Covid patients, ”said Aleksandra Pavlovičova, director of Galanta Hospital.

Neighboring Czech Republic also asked other countries yesterday to help and admit at least a dozen Covid-19 patients. The data show that the new coronavirus is currently spreading the fastest in the European Union. More than eight thousand people living with coronavirus have been hospitalized in the Czech Republic with a population of 10 million, a record number since the start of the pandemic.

“This hospital, like others, is in a situation where the number of patients is increasing every day. The problem is that we are also hospitalizing more younger patients and their disease is more serious than what we observed in the autumn, ”said Petra Cherno, a spokeswoman for Havlickuvbrod Hospital.

As in Slovakia, the Czech Republic has been exacerbated by the spread of the most contagious British virus. In an attempt to reduce the spread of the disease, all companies with more than 50 employees in the Czech Republic must carry out mandatory and regular mass Covid-19 tests.

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