RUSSIAN DOCTORS HELPLESS VS VIRUS
MOSCOW: An exhausted coronavirus patient slowly and deliberately writes his message on a green clipboard one letter at a time: “Doctor, when can I go home?”
For the past three weeks, the 54-year-old has been on a ventilator in a hospital in Moscow, the epicenter of the pandemic in Russia, receiving treatment for the virus.
“Wait a while longer,” says
Dmitry Cheboksarov, head of the coronavirus ward at the Vinogradov hospital.
“We are teaching you how to breathe,” he says softly. “It will be another four days.”
Pressure on the hospital in Moscow has eased since Russia reported its record number of new coronavirus infections earlier this month.
But doctors and nurses in the coronavirus unit are working long hours and treating a steady flow of patients that has kept their ward at capacity. They say they have yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Cheboksarov, wearing a mask, goggles and a full protective suit, explains that his patient’s health is improving. But he still needs to be hooked up to respirator, which prevents him from speaking.
“Don’t be sad,” the doctor says. “Your loved ones are kissing you.
I’m in touch with them. They’ll phone you tomorrow.”
The 36 beds in this coronavirus ward have been occupied continuously since mid- April, says Cheboksarov, a father of two who estimates he had slept an average of four hours every night for the past month.
“I try not to think about the end of the epidemic. It would get in the way of my work.”
Territory. Earlier Monday, the Nigerian government extended the gradual easing of the lockdown by two weeks and maintained a ban on inter- state travel, as a measure to curb the spread of the Covid- 19 pandemic in the country.
Youth gather for an aperitif outside a bar in the colosseum in Rome as the country’s lockdown eases after over two months. Restaurants and churches reopened in Italy on May 18, 2020.