The Health Ministry instructed the country’s hospitals to begin preparing for the eventuality of all their beds being occupied and 5,000 coronavirus patients requiring ventilators, a ministry official says.
Currently, in Israel, there are just over 2,800 available ventilators, according to the Health Ministry.
Dr. Vera Ezra, head of the ministry’s medical department, tells reporters that such a scenario is estimated to occur in the coming weeks based on current trends.
“We saw a jump of 10 more cases of people in serious condition, on ventilators since yesterday. That is a large jump. It shows a trend. I spoke with our model forecasters today, and to them too this was a worrying jump,” she says.
“We won’t know how to deal with a number [of patients] that is larger than the number of [hospital] beds in the State of Israel,” Ezra warns.
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Sunday, March 29, 2020
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