As Moscow's Covid-19 numbers rise, city's top virus hospital head says facility now has record number of patients on ventilators
The head of Moscow’s top coronavirus hospital has revealed that his facility is being hit harder than ever before, with the number of patients on ventilators now beating the record for any other time during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to RT on Tuesday, Denis Protsenko of the Kommunarka Hospital revealed that out of 1,447 coronavirus patients treated at the institution 407 are in the intensive care unit, and 110 are connected to a ventilator. Protsenko became a nationwide household name in 2020 due to his role at the forefront of the country’s battle against Covid-19.
His revelation comes three days after Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced a set of new measures aimed at countering a “sharply worsening” coronavirus situation in the Russian capital, including an 11pm nightlife curfew. The city has far fewer restrictions than most of the European Union, however.
Also on rt.com Covid-19 has mutated so much in 18 months that proven treatments are often failing, says head of Moscow’s top virus hospitalAccording to the official numbers, Russia recorded 13,397 new cases nationwide on Tuesday. The capital is taking the brunt of the latest wave, with 5,782 new infections detected in the last 24 hours, a sharp rise from 2,842 just two weeks ago.
Last week, Protsenko told Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy that Covid-19 has mutated significantly, and the virus is now much harder to treat than it used to be.
“There is a feeling that the virus is changing,” Protsenko explained. “The proven methods of treatment for hyper-inflammation or, as we call it, cytokine storms, are often failing.”
His comments came a day after Deputy Moscow Mayor Anastasia Rakova revealed that the city would open up additional hospital beds to battle the growth in severe cases.
Protsenko also told RT that he believes the best way to get out of the Covid-19 crisis is mandatory vaccination, which he said is the “only way out of the current pandemic situation.”
Also on rt.com Moscow orders ‘mandatory’ vaccination against Covid-19 for some workers serving the public as cases soar in Europe’s largest cityJust one day later, on Wednesday, Moscow became the first city in the world to make vaccination against coronavirus compulsory for employees in a wide range of public-facing industries, such as workers in catering, transport, and museums.
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