Amid increasing number of coronavirus infections, healthcare authorities are again urging people to maintain the safety guidelines as hospitals across Armenia are running short of ICU beds.
Armenian healthcare system running short of ICU beds amid increasing number of COVID-19 cases
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 6, ARTSAKHPRESS: Knar Ghonyan, the Director of the Department of Medical Aid Policy of the Ministry of Healthcare told Armenpress that the healthcare system is working heavily overloaded and all intensive care unit beds are almost full.
The number of beds deployed in more than 20 hospitals across the country has reached 2500.
Ghonyan says hospitals treating COVID-19 patients receive on an average 300 calls per day on patients who require hospitalization. “We also have people waiting to get hospitalized, and their number fluctuates,” Ghonyan said. “I don’t want to mention a concrete number because this number changes, and we are doing everything we can for our citizens to get hospitalized as soon as possible. In any case, let me note that indeed there are patients who may have to wait at home for a few hours or even days to get hospitalized.”
According to her, every day the health authorities are including new medical centers in the process to increase capacity. However, Ghonyan warned that the resources and ICU beds aren’t unlimited.
She warned that even during 2020 October-November, a period which saw the most new cases per day, the health authorities were only able to deploy around 3000 beds, whereas now 2500 are already deployed.
“We must realize that soon we might have a problem.”
