Egypt: University sets up field hospital as patients struggle to find beds

The President of Ain Shams University has announced that it has set up a field hospital with 171 beds to treat COVID-19 patients.

The hospital, which cost 33 million Egyptian pounds ($2 million) and has 11 ICU beds, has been set up behind the university and will begin treating patients today.

Egypt’s top medical union recently warned that the country’s health care system would collapse under the strain of the pandemic on top of years of chronic underfunding if authorities did not move quickly.

Whole hospitals and departments have shut down after large numbers of medics have become infected due to lack of PPE and ordinary Egyptians struggle to find much needed beds in ICU departments and on quarantine wards.

Many have taken to social media to appeal for help and call on others to locate space for them, appealing for funds to pay for treatment.

Yesterday a coronavirus patient became the second to commit suicide by jumping out of the window of a hospital after his mental health deteriorated after he became infected with COVID-19.

READ: Egypt warns against self-medicating to treat coronavirus