Mozambique: Hospitals in danger of running out of beds for COVID-19

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Mozambique: Hospitals in danger of running out of beds for COVID-19

7:10 CAT | 26 Jul 2021

Photo: HCQ-Hospital Central de Quelimane

Mozambican Health Minister Armindo Tiago warned on Saturday that, in some provinces, hospitals are in danger of running out of intensive care beds for Covid-19 patients.

Speaking to reporters in the central city of Quelimane, Tiago said “in a very short space of time, the country could find itself facing a lack of beds, unless we change our behaviour and implement adequately the Covid-19 prevention measures”.

In Maputo province, that point has already been reached. 40 intensive care beds were available in the provincial capital, Matola, but the latest Health Ministry statistics show 49 patients hospitalised in Matola.

“The hospitalisation capacity in Maputo province is already above 100 per cent, and in the other provinces, although less than 70 per cent of capacity has been reached, we must understand that the daily level of hospital admissions is very high”, said Tiago.

In the Zambezia provincial capital of Quelimane, Tiago found that the Covid-19 treatment centre has 100 beds, which is currently more than enough, but oxygen is not being piped to all of them.

Tiago guaranteed that he situation will be solved soon with the acquisition of the appropriate machine.

The health authorities believed that the peak of the third wave of coronavirus infection could be reached in mid-August – but the intervening weeks could see hospitals in the worst hit provinces struggling to find space for patents, and to provide them with live saving oxygen.

The solution for the situation in Matola could be to move patients to the Mavalane general hospital in Maputo city, where beds are still available, or to open improvised wards in tents, if oxygen supplies can be connected to the beds.

Source: AIM