Lisbon says that the record of 843 of the 850 ICU beds allocated to COVID-19 patients on its continent is occupied.
Portugal said that only seven vacant beds remained in intensive care units (ICUs) installed for cases of COVID-19 on its continent, as an outbreak of infections led the authorities to send some critically ill patients to the Portuguese islands.
Data from the Ministry of Health showed on Saturday that of the 850 ICU beds allocated to COVID-19 cases on its continent, a record 843 beds were occupied. The nation of 10 million people has 420 additional ICU beds for people with other illnesses.
The ministry said the number of daily infections was 12,435, falling from Thursday’s record 16,432, while there were 293 deaths.
Portugal, which has so far reported a total of 12,179 deaths and 711,018 cases of COVID-19, has the highest average of seven days of cases and deaths per capita in the world, according to the data tracker ourworldindata.org.
The country’s rate of new cases has recently reached the highest in the world in proportion to its population. Ambulances line up outside Lisbon hospitals, while their health service suffers from pressure.
Refrigerator Truck
The Ministry of Justice said on Friday that its institute of forensic medicine, whose job includes handling autopsies for the police and others, requested a refrigerator truck to store the bodies, as the funeral homes were unable to take them with them. fast enough.
An association representing funeral homes said public hospitals are also running out of refrigerated space to preserve bodies. Some hospitals have installed cold containers to relieve pressure in their morgues.
With the number of beds on the continent decreasing, three patients in need of intensive care were flown from Lisbon to the Portuguese island of Madeira on Friday, where the health system is under less pressure.
The government attributed the rise in infections to a decision to relax restrictions during the Christmas period, attributing the speed with which infections spread to a new variant first detected in the UK.
Portugal’s health institute, Ricardo Jorge, told the Lusa news agency that the variant is expected to account for 65 percent of new cases of COVID-19 in three weeks.
Portugal extended the blockade until mid-February and imposed strict travel restrictions.