As Russia breaks record for daily Covid-19 cases, Moscow’s main specialist infections hospital has no empty beds for new patients

After bearing the brunt of Russia's battle with Covid-19 in spring, Moscow had hoped that growing the city's treatment capacity would weaken a second wave. But now, the capital's top infections hospital is full to the brim.

In an interview with RT's Anton Krasovsky, published on Thursday, the director of the Kommunarka facility, Denis Protsenko, admitted that, as the number of cases ramps up in Moscow, its most famous Covid-19 clinic has no space left. It was visited by President Vladimir Putin in March who complimented the work there as being “like clockwork.”

Between April and October, the capacity at Kommunarka was expanded significantly, and it now has over 2,000 spaces for Covid-19 patients. Prior to the improvement, the hospital had a total of just 802 beds. The first patients were admitted to the new 1,249-bed reserve section last month, on October 7. As a whole, Moscow has around 15,000 hospital spaces for patients with coronavirus at various different locations.

“In order to ensure that all Muscovites without exception can receive medical help, we are building reserve units so that medical facilities and doctors involved in elective and emergency care can continue their regular practice,” Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, while visiting the hospital.

In his interview with RT, Protsenko predicted that the pandemic is likely to end in the summer, but expects a third wave of Covid-19 to appear in March. However, the doctor thinks it could end faster if an effective vaccine gets distributed throughout the country.

On Friday, Moscow registered its worst-ever day for new Covid-19 infections, with 6,253 confirmed cases in just 24 hours. The biggest country in the world is seeing a rapid increase in positive tests, and official numbers show that 1,733,440 people have had the disease. Russia is 4th in the world for confirmed instances, behind the US (9,611,004), India (8,411,724), and Brazil (5,590,025).

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!