Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, SANA- Health Minister Dr. Hassan al-Ghobash has inspected the readiness of a number of public and private hospitals in Damascus and the extent of their response to the implementation of Plan “B” which includes expanding the isolation departments and stopping the non-urgent”cold” surgeries, in addition to mobilizing medical and technical personnel to deal with Coronavirus.
In a statement to journalists, Dr. al-Ghobash hailed the efforts exerted by the medical cadres during the stage, underlining the necessity to provide moral support to them, noting that the ministry closely follows ups the health conditions in all the hospitals of the provinces and it continually inspects the number of the available and empty beds within the hospitals and it works on providing all forms of support to the health cadres.
Dr. al-Ghobash called upon the citizens to adhere to the precautionary measures against the Coronavirus, affirming that “using face mask is no longer an option, but it has become a duty.” He added that returning to the shutdown is not a solution to break the infection chain.
Regarding the vaccine, Dr. Ghobash said that the Health Ministry is working carefully on addressing this pandemic upon directives of the Government, indicating that the Ministry is ready to cooperate with the World Health Organization on the scientific level with regard to the issue of the vaccines.
Director-General of Ibn al-Nafees Hospital Dr. Nizar Ibrahim said that the number of the coronavirus infections has risen by 15 percent while the number of the cases at the intensive care units has increased by 80 percent, indicating that the plan “B” has been implemented as all the non-urgent surgeries have been stopped and only the emergency and sub-emergency surgeries are being performed.
Dr. Ibrahim added that two departments at the hospital with a capacity of up to 60 beds have been allocated for coronavirus cases, in addition to supplying the intensive care unit with nine beds and the cardiac care unit with 4 beds, in addition to supplying an isolation room with two beds, and putting all the ventilators in the service of the coronavirus cases.
Meanwhile, Director of the Emergency Hospital in al-Faihaa Sport Hall, Dr. Yasser Zahra, explained that the hospital has a bed capacity of 120 patients, in addition to the presence of a section equipped to support half the ventilation mechanism and the resuscitation department in case of need, indicating that the hospital has a specialist on duty, doctors residing with him, a nursing staff and anesthesia technicians, in addition to the administrative staff, and the medical staff is changed every 24 hours.
Director of al-Mujtahid Hospital, Dr. Ahmed Abbas indicated that since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, the hospital has been working to confront it with full readiness to receive all cases with a bed capacity of about 47 patients, which can be increased in the event that matters develop in addition to stopping all the non-urgent surgeries to mobilize medical capabilities and energies to confront the Coronavirus pandemic, pointing to the presence of 30 Coronavirus patients currently inside the hospital with various infections varying from moderate to severe.
General Director of Mouwasat University Hospital, Dr. Issam Zakariya al-Amin, indicated that the hospital is fully equipped to receive any incoming case, and there are 60 confirmed cases in the hospital, indicating that 50 new beds have been added to the service and there are 180 fully equipped rooms, and the number of beds can be increased in the event of an increase in the epidemic curve.
Ruaa al-Jazaeri
