Western Romania: Army-built modular hospital receives first Covid-19 patients

The modular hospital built by the National Defense Ministry on a stadium in Timişoara, a city in western Romania, has become operational.

The hospital works as an external department of the Dr. Victor Popescu Military Hospital in Timişoara.

The unit already received ten coronavirus patients, aged between 20 and 60, and showing mild and moderate symptoms, local daily Adevarulreported.

The hospital can currently receive 50 patients, while its intensive care unit has four beds. It also has a real-time PCR laboratory, which can carry out 40 tests per day, a quarantine camp, and a triage and isolation area.

“Because we have a shortage of staff at the moment, we can currently isolate only ten people. There are ten tents, one for each patient. We normally have 30 places in 30 tents,” lieutenant doctor Anda Podgoreanu, the spokesperson of the Military Hospital in Timişoara, said, quoted by Adevarul.

The hospital became operational as the number of coronavirus cases increased, and the Timişoara hospitals treating Covid-19 patients are almost fully occupied.

Romania reported 1,030 coronavirus cases on July 22, 29 of them in Timiș county.

Meanwhile, Timișoara will also host a recovery center for Covid-19 patients, Stiri.tvr.ro reported. The center will open at the city’s Victor Babeș Hospital for Infectious Diseases.

(Photo: The modular hospital in Timișoara being set up; photo source: mapn.ro)