Hong Kong: hospitals overwhelmed by the influx of patients with Covid-19
Patients with Covid-19 wait for treatment outside Caritas Hospital in Hong Kong on February 18, 2022. AP - Kin Cheung
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2 mins
In Hong Kong, the election for the chief executive has been pushed back two months due to the flaring Covid outbreak.
In several hospitals in the territory, dozens of patients have spent several nights in the open air, a situation which illustrates the lack of preparation of the authorities who persist in the "zero Covid" approach while the number of patients continues to increase every day. .
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With our correspondent in Hong Kong,
Florence de Changy
Contrary to claims months ago that Hong Kong was prepared for a worst-case scenario, authorities are totally overwhelmed by
the spike in Covid-19 cases
.
Hospitals are overcrowded.
As a result, we saw dozens of patients, most of them very old, spending days and nights in the open air waiting to be admitted to hospital.
Aymee is an emergency nurse at the Caritas hospital in the Sham Shan Shui Po district where there are many retirement homes.
“
The situation started to deteriorate around February 12.
Some
patients
have had to wait outside for 3 or 4 days, outside the Emergency Department there are around 200 people
,” she explains.
Her friend Polly, a nurse in the department of general medicine and geriatrics, regrets that the government is giving contradictory instructions at the origin of this congestion.
“
We feel so deprived, because there are not enough of us and there are always more patients;
we can see what they need, they are cold, they need food but we are so busy, we don't have time to take care of everyone...
"
On Saturday morning, as a cold rain fell on Hong Kong, authorities announced that most patients had been taken to shelter.
But the number of new infected cases has broken a new record.
►Also read: Covid-19: Hong Kong prohibits passengers from 153 countries from transiting through its airport
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hong kong
Coronavirus
Health and medicine