Coronavirus: 400 isolation beds to be added to Hong Kong’s public hospitals to ease pressure from surging number of infections
- ‘Second-tier’ beds will be in negative-pressure wards for recovering patients in stable condition to free up space for fresh cases
- News comes as another five cases confirmed from growing bar cluster, bringing number of linked infections to 48
Hong Kong hospital chiefs have added 400 isolation beds for coronavirus patients, as the city reported 64 new cases, 47 of whom had a recent travel history.
The latest infections on Saturday brought the city’s tally to 582, after the biggest single-day jump on Friday of 65 cases.
Dr Sara Ho Yuen-ha, the Hospital Authority’s chief manager for patient safety and risk management, revealed at the daily press conference that 400 “second-tier beds” had been converted from ordinary wards across seven public hospital clusters to cope with increasing demand.
Such units are fitted with ventilator machines to create a negative interior air pressure, preventing air and the virus which may be suspended in droplets from leaving the rooms. They will be put to use next week.
Ho said Covid-19 patients in stable condition would be moved to those beds first, freeing up space for new cases, adding “we will continue to consider various plans to increase our hospitals’ capacity and work hand in hand with the government on its anti-epidemic strategy”.