Coronavirus care facilities in the Kurdistan Region are having to reassess which patients they are able to provide hospital treatment to as cases numbers continue to grow, health officials told Rudaw on Sunday.
The surge in cases of the coronavirus in Sulaimani has left hospitals dedicated to its treatment "full", provincial health directorate spokesperson Dr. Yad Naqshbandi said.
Sulaimani is currently the epicentre of the COVID-19 virus in the Kurdistan Region, with 300 of the Region's 450 active cases located in the province.
With dedicated facilities in the province at capacity, health officials are having to reassess who will be granted hospital care if case numbers continue to grow.
"We are at a dangerous stage, and if people continue ignoring the measures then we will soon reach a dangerous level and a catastrophe will happen. That time, we will be able to hospitalize only those patients who need ventilators and intense care," Naqshbandi said.
Triage of patients will be replicated across the Kurdistan Region if needed, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) health minister Dr. Saman Barzanji told Rudaw.
"We will divide the patients in order to prevent the coronavirus-specified hospitals from being full and so that we continue monitoring the health those patients who are in an unstable condition. We send those patients, who show simpler symptoms, to other places where they will remain under monitoring," Barzanji said.
Rudaw anchor Shaho Amin spoke to a hospitalised coronavirus patient Freeshta Mohammed on air on Sunday.
Currently being treated at Sarchinar hospital in Sulaimani, Mohammed told Amin she was recovering well from the severe breathlessness she'd been left with by the virus.
She urged the public to dismiss the idea that the virus is not real.
"What motive would doctors, the health ministry, healthcare workers have to lie to people about coronavirus?" she asked Amin.
The Kurdistan Region has so far recorded 905 cases of the coronavirus, according to an interactive dashboard provided by the KRG. Fourteen people in the Region have died after contracting the virus.
By Karwan Faidhi Dri and Shahla Omar
The surge in cases of the coronavirus in Sulaimani has left hospitals dedicated to its treatment "full", provincial health directorate spokesperson Dr. Yad Naqshbandi said.
Sulaimani is currently the epicentre of the COVID-19 virus in the Kurdistan Region, with 300 of the Region's 450 active cases located in the province.
With dedicated facilities in the province at capacity, health officials are having to reassess who will be granted hospital care if case numbers continue to grow.
"We are at a dangerous stage, and if people continue ignoring the measures then we will soon reach a dangerous level and a catastrophe will happen. That time, we will be able to hospitalize only those patients who need ventilators and intense care," Naqshbandi said.
Triage of patients will be replicated across the Kurdistan Region if needed, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) health minister Dr. Saman Barzanji told Rudaw.
"We will divide the patients in order to prevent the coronavirus-specified hospitals from being full and so that we continue monitoring the health those patients who are in an unstable condition. We send those patients, who show simpler symptoms, to other places where they will remain under monitoring," Barzanji said.
Rudaw anchor Shaho Amin spoke to a hospitalised coronavirus patient Freeshta Mohammed on air on Sunday.
Currently being treated at Sarchinar hospital in Sulaimani, Mohammed told Amin she was recovering well from the severe breathlessness she'd been left with by the virus.
She urged the public to dismiss the idea that the virus is not real.
"What motive would doctors, the health ministry, healthcare workers have to lie to people about coronavirus?" she asked Amin.
The Kurdistan Region has so far recorded 905 cases of the coronavirus, according to an interactive dashboard provided by the KRG. Fourteen people in the Region have died after contracting the virus.
By Karwan Faidhi Dri and Shahla Omar
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