Russia faces potential autumn Covid-19 hospital crisis as cases rise sharply & 90% of allocated beds are already in use

Almost 90 percent of the 129,000 hospital beds allocated for Covid-19 patients in Russia are occupied. That's according to Alexey Kuznetsov, an assistant to the country's Health Minister, who was speaking on Tuesday.

Kuznetsov's comments came as it was revealed that the number of daily cases in Russia has almost doubled in the last month.

At the peak of the outbreak in late spring, Russian hospitals rapidly managed to increase the number of available beds from 50,000 to 184,000. As case numbers began to fall off, the extra capacity was used for regular patient treatment. Now, with coronavirus cases rising, there are almost no spaces left.

“Currently, 129,750 beds are designated for patients with Covid-19, of which 115,500 are occupied. That is 89 percent,” said Kuznetsov. “If necessary, if the number of cases increases, additional beds will be transferred from (the) reserve to receiving patients with coronavirus,” he said.

With winter just around the corner, Russian hospitals are preparing for the worst. The country's medical institutions are stockpiling personal protective equipment (PPE) and drugs, ready for an influx.

On Tuesday afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said the increase in Covid-19 cases was the result of “non-observance,” blaming Russians for not wearing their masks and for participating in mass events. 

READ MORE: Covid-19 death toll tops 1 MILLION worldwide as pandemic spikes in US, Brazil & Europe

According to official data, Russia has 1,167,805 confirmed cases of Covid-19, placing it fourth in the world behind the US (7,150,824), India (6,145,291) and Brazil (4,745,464).

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