HAMA, Syria (North Press) – This month, three people of Lama Tarbin, 51, a resident of Hama, central Syria, died of Covid-19.
“The National Hospital in Hama refused to receive my brother on the pretext that there was not enough bed to receive him,” Tarbin told North Press.
But his deteriorating health condition forced them to take him to another hospital, where he died two days later.
A few days after her brother’s death, his wife, his child, and then his mother showed symptoms during the same week.
The city of Hama in central Syria, which is held by the Syrian government, is witnessing a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths related to it, according to medical workers and residents.
Poor service
Yara al-Jamil a pseudonym for a worker in the Hama Health Directorate, said that the directorate is unable to provide medical materials and devices to the National Hospital and health centers due to the large number of the infections.
She added that they submitted several requests to the Ministry of Health in Damascus in order to secure the necessary medicines, materials and devices for coronavirus patients, without receiving any response.
She considered that the ministry, despite its inability, had no intention to close economic facilities and restaurants.
Hama includes the National Governmental Hospital in the al-Masaken neighborhood and the al-Assad University Hospital in al-Munakh Street, which is specialized for children and women.
There are also private hospitals such as the Medical Center, Hourani, al-Badr, al-Hikma and Dar al-Shifa’, which receive infected cases, but the cost of the ventilator for a COVID-19 patient reaches one million Syrian pounds per night (about $300), according to the families of the patients.
While Yamen al-Shirazi, a pseudonym for a department official at the National Hospital in Hama, said that the hospital includes three isolation departments and an ICU for coronavirus patients.
He added that each of the three departments includes ten devices used for patients with hypoxia, which are used for patients with severe cases.
Frightening numbers
Al-Shirzai pointed out that the departments are full, there are no longer enough ventilators, and there is a use of rural hospitals to send beds and respirators to the city hospitals.
He stated that there are about 50 cases in the Hama National Hospital now, 13 of them are in the ICU.
The number of deaths recorded by hospitals in the city of Hama ranges between 10 and 20, due to the lack of sufficient care rooms, according to al-Shirazi.
For his part, Khaled al-Sari, a resident of al-Andalus neighborhood, described the number of deaths that are being buried from the Muhammad Hamid Mosque every day, which is dedicated to the funeral of coronavirus deaths, as frightening.
He said that more than ten people, most of whom are young people, are buried every day.
On September 19, the governor of Hama issued a decision to stop the funerals, but the majority of the population did not abide by this, according to al-Sari.