Portugal, which passed the 900 threshold for Covid-19 patients in intensive care on Saturday, called on Europe for help.
About twenty medical staff from the German army arrived as reinforcements to lend a hand to completely saturated hospitals.
REPORTAGE
The third wave of the Covid-19 epidemic continues to hit Portugal very hard.
Reconfined, the country passed the bar of 900 patients in intensive care on Saturday, a record.
Faced with this difficult-to-control situation, the southern state called on Europe for help and around twenty German caregivers arrived to lend a hand to already saturated hospitals.
Europe 1 was able to visit one of them, in Lisbon.
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"We are coming to a breaking point"
"We have seen patients younger than before, who die without seeing their families," sighs Rita, a doctor in cosmonaut outfit whose mask traces seem to be imprinted on the skin.
"It's like a fire that we are trying to put out and which continues to burn, burn, burn," she warns after 12 hours on call.
Behind a tight door, about twenty Covid-19 patients are inert, and between the beds, a ballet of nurses parades.
"We do not have enough doctors, nurses, not enough staff", testifies one of them.
"This problem existed before. We are coming to a breaking point."
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Overwhelmed, the hospital system was therefore reinforced by 26 caregivers from the German army, who arrived this week and who will open a new intensive care unit.
"This is a first for soldiers since the start of the epidemic. Usually, we are trained to manage crises," explains the colonel in charge of these reinforcements.
"I was still in Afghanistan a few months ago… Here the enemy is invisible, but extremely dangerous."