RO hospitals packed as Covid-19 cases rise

Several hospitals in large cities were working to accommodate the influx of Covid-19 patients as the number of cases kept climbing over the past week.

The daily count hit a new high on Saturday, October 2, when 12,590 cases were reported, the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic. Of the total, 2,538 were reported in Bucharest, where the incidence rate reached 9.64 per 1,000 on October 4. By October 3, the number of patients admitted with Covid-19 reached 13,319, and 1,440 of them were admitted to intensive care units. The vaccination rate remains the second-lowest in Europe, with 34.5% of the population older than 18 vaccinated with at least one dose, according to the Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker of the European Center for Disease Prevention.

At the Marius Nasta Institute in Bucharest, one of the city’s main hospitals treating Covid-19 patients, beds were placed in the building's hallways. In a Facebook post, the institution explained it had 104 Covid-19 patients admitted, while 81 beds were available in the department and 15 patients were admitted to the intensive care unit.

Beatrice Mahler, the hospital’s manager, told Digi24 the situation was worse than during previous waves of the pandemic.

“Last night, we placed beds again in the hallways. During the day, we try to put those beds inside rooms, while having the same high number of patients, to find a place on the hallways for the patients who are expected today; those already admitted are in such serious condition that they cannot be released,” she explained.

She said the situation was similar to the one in Iași, in northeastern Romania, where ambulances were waiting with patients to be triaged and evaluated for admission as the number of available places was limited.

Florin Roşu, the manager of Sf Parascheva Infectious Diseases Hospital in Iaşi, called the battle with SARS-CoV-2 a lost one because of the low vaccination rate and disinformation.

“We can make available as many ICU beds as possible, we can open new hospitals or turn non-Covid departments into Covid ones, the low vaccination rate coupled with the population’s disinformation brought us in this scenario,” he said in a statement quoted by Agerpres.

In Timișoara, Cristian Oancea, the manager of Victor Babeș Infectious Diseases Hospital, also pointed to the few available beds and suggested that foreign help might be needed “because soon, in one-three days, we won’t have where to place these patients,” he said, quoted by television station Digi24.