Moscow hospital feels strain of second COVID-19 wave

MOSCOW REUTERS OCT 9- Alexei Karzin, head of a 20-bed intensive care unit in a Moscow hospital, felt a sense of relief when his unit stopped treating COVID19 patients in early September and could get back to looking after stroke victims. His relief was short-lived. Three weeks later, he turned his ward back into a “red zone” after the hospital struggled to cope with a sudden influx of coronavirus patients.

“I knew, of course, there would be some increase in infected people,” said Karzin, sitting at his desk at Moscow Hospital Number 52.“But we didn’t expect it to be this sharp and to involve such high numbers.” On Friday, Russia’s new daily infections for the first time exceeded the peak of the outbreak in May and reached a new record of 12,126 cases.