Hospitals in Czech Republic are converting general wards into Covid-19 units as the country sees an exponential increase in patients during the second wave of virus.
The hospitals are also cancelling non-urgent procedures as number of hospitalised patients were six times the peak seen during the first wave, Reuters reported.
Construction workers are converting a general ward at the 314-bed hospital in Slany for Covid-19 patients. With this, the number of special beds will be increased from the current 12 to 29.
The ICU ward of the hospital has five beds and is also completely designated for Covid-19 patients.
Furthermore, the Czech Republic plans to build first field hospital to keep up with the surge in Covid-19 cases.
Interior Minister Jan Hamacek told CTK news agency that Czech army is planning to build an area for 500 hospital beds at the Letnany fairground in Prague, the news agency said.
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By GlobalDataIt also plans to rope in thousands of medical students to help treat the infected patients.
The European country with 10.7 million tops the list of highest number of new infections relative to population size.
Though the country is well-equipped with beds, oxygen and ventilators, hike in cases and staff shortage as 4,000 hospital workers are infected, adds to the trouble.
Last week, Czech Republic witnessed over 8,000 infections daily, taking the number of active cases to 68,740.
According to the government experts, the number of hospitalised patients will hit 4,500-10,750 by October-end.
Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis said that additional capacity was needed. To accommodate this, 4,000 beds are planned to be purchased from hospital and nursing bed maker LINET.