Covid Patients May Sent to Gyms to Free Up Hospital Capacity

Patients with a mild course of covid-19 could be placed in gyms in case hospitals are nearing their capacity limit.

Should the spread of the infection get worse the government may also order specialists in outpatient clinics and medical students to help out in hospitals.

In several regions, hospitals that are full have been transferring patients to a decreasing number of less-strained facilities.

The government said earlier this week it might ask neighboring Germany to take in patients if the situation worsens further, despite earlier rejecting calls from the most pressured border regions to do so.

“We already have selected several gyms and one dormitory where we can place those patients if necessary,” said Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib.

At the end of October, when the Czech army built the Letňany hospital, there were around 7,000 covid patients hospitalized, while at the beginning of November there were over eight thousand.

As of Friday, 14% of intensive care and high dependence beds were available across the country, including 149 places for COVID patients.

The number of those hospitalized in a serious condition has reached 1,258, above a previous peak in November.