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Photo: Ambulances line up outside suburban Moscow hospital as COVID-19 pushes health systems to the edge
Source: Meduza
On April 10, Moscow city officials said the COVID-19 epidemic had brought Russia’s capital to “the brink” of an overwhelming load on its inpatient care and ambulance systems. Soon afterward, reports emerged that ambulances had been forced to wait in lines outside at least two area hospitals: Hospital No. 119 in the suburb of Khimki (pictured here on April 11) and Veterans’ Hospital No. 3 in Moscow. Some social media users argued that the ambulances were waiting in line to be disinfected, but on April 11, Moscow’s COVID-19 task force clarified that they were in fact waiting to admit an escalating flow of patients. However, the task force emphasized that “situations like these are not systemic in nature.”
Valery Sharifulin / TASS / Scanpix / LETA