SOHAG, Egypt (AP) – Countries around the world struggling with new coronavirus outbreaks are trying to ensure they are not hit by an Indian-style disaster. They face many of the same risks, including large populations that have escaped restrictions and fragile health systems shaken under pressure.
In a province along the Nile in southern Egypt, hospitals have been inundated with patients with COVID-19, a major hotspot in a third swelling peak across the country. Doctors in Sohag province warn the healthcare system could collapse, even as the government rushes into new supplies.
“My estimate is that there is no family in Sohag that does not have a corona case,” said Dr Mahmoud Fahmy Mansour, head of the provincial doctors’ union. “We lost five doctors in one week.”
He said a scenario like India was a possibility, but “God willing, it is a very remote possibility.”
Long reluctant to impose new lockdowns, the Egyptian government on Wednesday announced its tightest restrictions in months. He ordered cafes, restaurants, shops and malls to close at 9 p.m. and banned large gatherings for two weeks, as well as the closure of beaches and parks during the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holidays. at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Egypt is not the only one to see the rise of new infections. Globally, more cases have been reported in the past two weeks than in the first six months of the pandemic, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom said.
India and Brazil have been a big part of that, “but there are many other countries in the world that are facing a very fragile situation,” he said. “What is happening in India and Brazil could happen elsewhere unless we take all of these public health precautions.”
India has been hit by a catastrophic outbreak of COVID-19 infections after its prime minister boasted of having beaten the pandemic and following multiple events of massive overcrowding. New cases and deaths increased almost 30 times in March and April. The healthcare system has been overwhelmed, leaving patients desperate for oxygen and other supplies.
The richest nations, by immunizing more of their populations, find room to open up. But countries where vaccination has been slow or minimal face grim prospects. They must consider whether they should lock in to thwart further surges and risk damaging their economies – all with the possibility of an India-like tragedy.
In Turkey, new cases have increased nearly six-fold since early March, reaching a peak of more than 60,000 per day. The government imposed a three-week nationwide lockdown on April 29, but exempted many sectors, allowing millions of people to continue working.
The numbers have fallen, but medical experts are calling for a complete 28-day shutdown of all non-essential services, when only 10 million of its more than 80 million people have been fully immunized.
“These restrictions were not the restrictions we were asking for,†said Vedat Bulut, secretary general of the Independent Turkish Medical Association.
In Egypt, the average daily new cases have doubled since early February to just over 1,000 per day and continue to rise, from previous peaks of 1,400 to 1,600 per day last summer and in December, the figures show. officials.
The scale of the pandemic has been difficult to judge in the country of 100 million people, most of whom live in densely populated cities along the Nile. Official figures show 234,015 cases, including 13,714 deaths – considered a significant undercount as elsewhere in the world.
In Sohag province, health workers have grown desperate. A doctor who presides over a large hospital there said the actual numbers are likely 10 times the Department of Health’s rate of 400 to 450 new cases per week.
“The ministry is like an ostrich burying its head in the sand,†he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Mustafa Salem, a lawmaker from Sohag, said he had received dozens of calls from people desperate to find ventilators or beds in intensive care units.
When Ismail Abdallah fell ill last month, his family took him to a clinic where, without being tested, he was told it was pneumonia.
Two days later, the 50-year-old farmer and father of seven found it difficult to breathe. At the hospital, he was confirmed with COVID-19 and his family struggled to find a bed in crowded intensive care units.
“There were no beds available in the free ward,†said a relative, Amr Mahrous. “We had trouble finding a bed in the paid service.”
After two weeks of isolation in a hospital, Abdullah died last week.
The health ministry has beefed up the province’s facilities, sending in oxygen generators and ventilators and increasing the number of ICUs. It has deployed more doctors and doubled the medical teams to ensure the follow-up of people isolated at home. Two vaccination centers have been set up and others are planned, and 100 teams mobilized to raise awareness.
The health ministry has ranked Sohag among five hot spots in the country – including Cairo, a metropolis of around 20 million people.
Health officials attribute the new spike to widespread non-compliance with precautions. Throughout Egypt, the wearing of masks and social distancing are rare. Some cafes still serve water pipes, which are shared among patrons, despite government bans. Weddings and funerals still take place and people flock to the markets.
In Islamic Cairo, the historic center of the capital, families go to prayers together during the holy month of Ramadan. Tens of thousands of people gather at night in the narrow streets of the bazaar, shopping or sitting in the cafes. Few of them wear masks.
Hajah Fatima, 57, came from the southern province of Beni Sueif with her family and had “iftar”, the meal ending the day’s fast, in a cafe next to the revered Al-Hussein shrine.
“It’s a custom,†she said. “Crown? Nothing will happen to us except what God has decreed.
So far, more than a million people, or just 1% of Egypt’s population, have been vaccinated, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly said on Wednesday.
In the overcrowded Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip, home to 2 million people, cases have rapidly increased. In March and April, infection rates topped 1,000 per day – the number Gaza had previously recorded each week. Daily deaths have doubled to a high of 20. The virus has killed more than 900 Gazans and sickened more than 102,000, more than half of them this year.
“Hospitals are struggling to cope,” warned this week the international humanitarian group Médecins sans frontières.
Hamas leaders in the territory closed mosques and restaurants and imposed a nighttime curfew at the start of Ramadan to slow the outbreak. But he decided to lift those restrictions for the last 10 days of the holy month, alarming health officials.
“We are concerned about the large-scale easing of measures,” said Rami Abadllah, head of epidemiology at the health ministry.
Amid concerns over India, Kenya, which is emerging from a recent peak, has halted flights with the country for two weeks, while Nigeria has suspended flights with India, Brazil and Turkey, fearing that new strains of the virus would emerge as he tries to reduce cases. , especially in Lagos, where some 20 million people live.
In South Africa, with by far the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Africa, officials warn of a new wave as winter approaches in the southern hemisphere.
Pakistan is in the midst of a third wave, with the single-day death toll peaking in the entire pandemic on April 28, with 201 deaths.
Health officials have added hundreds of additional hospital beds. Oxygen production had already almost doubled to 800 tonnes per day compared to last year. Yet at the peak of the outbreak in recent weeks, it was using 90% of that production.
New cases eased slightly this week, dropping from a moving average of around 6,000 per day.
“Thank goodness we have so far managed to cope with this huge increase through proactive capacity building of the whole system,†said Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar.
But he warned that the country of more than 200 million people could face an Indian-level disaster unless people adhere to precautions that have been largely ignored. The government has rejected calls for a lockdown, but warns that could change.
“Be careful. For you and your loved ones,†he said in a tweet.
