Belgium: Liège hospital at the foot of the wall facing the Covid-19
Audio 01:21
The hospital staff in the CHR of the Citadel in Liège.
BRUNO FAHY / BELGA / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
Nearly 7,500 people are hospitalized because of Covid-19 in Belgium.
Wallonia has been one of the most contaminated regions in Europe since the start of this second wave.
At the regional hospital of Liège, places in intensive care are running out.
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With our special
correspondent in Liège,
Alexis Bedu
“
We are up against the wall.
The next few days will be decisive
”, describes Antoine Gruselin, public relations manager at the Citadelle hospital.
“
Room 30 is the intensive care room.
This is the room that is really dedicated to Covid patients
”
In the cells, the intubated patients will stay for several weeks.
Entire services have been reoriented towards the care of Covid-19 patients, such as that of Dr Benedicte Schenkelaars: “
We are an intensive care unit at the base, trauma which has been transformed into a Covid ward.
We have three six-bed units that are Covid.
We have a few beds left, but places are expensive.
As soon as we have an outgoing, we potentially have an entry.
"
An acceleration with the start of the student year
Patients have been transferred to less saturated hospitals in Flanders.
Wallonia experienced a contamination peak twice as high as in the spring, explains Sylviane Portugaels, director of the hospital.
“
At the beginning of October, we felt a very rapid rise.
And then it started to double.
It is of course the
start of the academic year
that has generated this increase in cases.
Life is fun there.
The young people go home, kiss their parents and it suddenly flared up.
"
► To read also: Covid-19: in Europe, reconfinements in dispersed order
For a month, between these walls, 59 people have died after contracting Covid-19.
And the director recalls that all age groups are affected:
It affects all ages.
We have children hospitalized for Covid-19 here.
Teens hospitalized for Covid-19 too, not necessarily in intensive care.
But in intensive care, we had an 18-year-old girl.
We have 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds, 50-year-olds, 60-year-olds.
Sylviane Portugaels on the profile of hospital patients in Liège
Alexis Bedu
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Belgium
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