Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: The COVID-19 situation currently in Oman is more dangerous than it has ever been since the start of the pandemic, a specialist in infectious diseases has said.
As many as 2,529 more people tested positive for the coronavirus in Oman on Monday, in addition to 31 new deaths.
This means that 250,572 people have tested positive, while 2,741 have died.
188 people have also been taken to hospital because of COVID-related issues over the past 24 hours.
There are currently 1,448 people in hospital, among whom 428 are in intensive care.
COVID-19 patients are occupying all of the beds assigned to intensive care units, which reflects the seriousness of the pandemic in the country, said Dr Zakaria Al Balushi, an infectious diseases consultant at the Royal Hospital.
“There are people in critical condition in the COVID-19 wards at the Royal Hospital, and they need urgent healthcare, similar to the treatment provided to people in ICUs,” he said.
“These patients need large amounts of oxygen. This is not just the case in our hospital, but also in health centres all over Oman. The COVID-19 is currently more dangerous than it has been during previous waves.”
Al Balushi was speaking to Shabiba FM, the radio station of Al Shabiba, the Arabic paper of the Times of Oman, when he said hospitals are crowded with large numbers of inpatients. He added that although more beds were being assigned to COVID patients, making the necessary arrangements to expand their intensive care units are not easy.
“We receive the largest numbers of patients in intensive care, and currently have about 70 beds in the ICUs. We are trying to increase the number of beds,” he added.
“Unfortunately, what is certain is that in the coming days, the numbers will continue to increase further, and more patients will require admittance into intensive care,” explained Al Balushi.
“The Supreme Committee has taken the decision to impose a night movement ban, but it will take time for us to see its effects on the ground.”
He added that the number of people currently in intensive care is very high now.
The numbers of new infections, admissions and deaths released on Monday had been expected by the Ministry of Health as early as a week ago.
“The COVID-19 numbers are very high, and continue to remain high,” said Dr Zakaria Al Balushi.
He added that the current wave had made doctors lose the ability to predict the fate of any COVID-19 patient who has not been previously admitted to intensive care.
To help bring down the spread of the disease, Al Balushi asked people to prevent gathering.
