Parirenyatwa 's COVID-19 Unit Has 3 ICU Beds, People Are Dying Because No One Is Volunteering To Work There - Report

A doctor who spoke to Aljazeera on the condition of anonymity has said the situation at The Parirenyatwa COVID-19 unit is bad as there are no volunteers to work in the unit. According to the source working in the unit is voluntary and key staff members are not volunteering due to lack of equipment and medication.

The doctor said they are working with three ICU beds, three ventilators, and four high flow nasal cannula machines:

That is what we are currently making use of.

The COVID-19 unit currently has about 60 patients. He said a shortage of key staff such as nurses at the hospital was hampering the fight against the disease.

Working in the COVID-19 unit is voluntary but no one is volunteering – especially ICU nurses and intensivists [anaesthetists]

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Six patients died in the ward the other night and then four but its mostly because there is no medication and equipment.

This was also echoed by Human Rights Activist Sithabile Dewah who said when she wanted her relative to be admitted at Parirenyatwa,  there were no nurses:

But there was no urgency on their part. I think they have just seen too much death to care. Government is not being honest and transparent in terms of its plans and response to the pandemic. Many people are dying at home. Many are just taking home remedies

The secretary of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, Norman Matara told Aljazeera that part from Parirenyatwa, hospital bed capacity in public hospitals is very low:

The problem is very few institutions are admitting COVID-19 patients because bed capacity is very low in public hospitals. This means that patients requiring these services will die at home. The few private facilities admitting patients are charging an arm and a leg

Zimbabwe yesterday recorded over 1300 positive cases and 34 COVID-19 deaths.

More: Aljazeera