Bulgaria: How will Hospitals Cope with Increased Number of People Infected with COVID-19

Some of the country's hospitals are already on the brink their capabilities of receiving covid patients. There will be restructuring and reorientation of medical teams in hospitals in Sofia.

"24 hours a day. We've been playing this movie here for two years now and it's exhausting. I have young children who can't always understand why Dad isn't there so often," said Dr. Nikolai Evgeniev, head of the Covid department at KOC-Ruse.

Covid taught us that there are irreplaceable people. Without them, the fight against the virus would be even more dishonest. Now the topic is the beds, how many places and how many more patients can be admitted to the hospitals. The answer is - very few. Montana is on the edge.

"The situation in the Montana area is critical. The capacity of the two wards designated for covid is almost completely full. In the morning there were almost none - no, there were no free beds" commented Dr. Todor Todorov - director of MHAT "Dr. Stamen Iliev", Montana.

There are a total of 41 beds available in the entire Montana area. Nearly 130,000 people rely on them when needed. The Montana District Hospital has decided to increase the number of beds for covid patients. In Sofia too - 30% of the beds in each hospital will be only for covid.

"Restructuring of clinics is forthcoming, restructuring of staff is forthcoming, reassignment of staff," said Dr. Dancho Penchev, director of the Sofia RHI.

Only in one of the hospitals in Sofia - Alexandrovska - the number of free beds for intensive care is counted on the fingers of a hand. There are only 3 free resuscitation beds, says the director of the hospital, Dr. Atanas Atanasov.

Covid wards will also be established in each specialized...