'Until The Dead Are Your Dead': Uruguay ICU Staff Decry Pandemic Laxity
Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published April 22, 2021 | 12:47 AM
Intensive care workers in Uruguay are at their wits' end. While they work day and night to save the lives of coronavirus patients, the population at large, they say, seems unperturbed by the mounting health crisis
Montevideo, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Apr, 2021 ) :Intensive care workers in Uruguay are at their wits' end. While they work day and night to save the lives of coronavirus patients, the population at large, they say, seems unperturbed by the mounting health crisis.
"Unfortunately, people do not seem to comprehend," said Carla Romero, a nursing assistant at an ICU unit in Montevideo.
"That's how it is. Until the dead are your dead... until it happens in your family, it is hard for people to comprehend." Tiny Uruguay, with its population of 3.5 million, has gone from a shining example of Covid-19 control to a nation in pandemic crisis.
Figures collated by AFP show a two-week infection rate of 1,331 per 100,000 inhabitants -- by far the highest in the world.
In absolute numbers, the country wedged between Brazil and Argentina, is registering about 3,000 new cases per day, and almost 60 daily deaths.
With 2,022 in total, Uruguay has had fewer deaths as a percentage of its population than most Latin American countries, and many in Europe, but in the last two weeks, it had the region's highest death rate.
The country has never had a lockdown, and restaurants and bars remain open.
A major contributor to Uruguay's fast-spreading outbreak has been its proximity to hard-hit Brazil and its more contagious P1 virus variant, which has spread across the border.
The government has steadfastly rejected calls for a national lockdown, and observers and health personnel complain of a laxness that has taken hold of society.
"You see it on the street: almost everyone without masks. People don't believe, that's it. Until you have a relative in here, you don't believe," intensive care worker Francisco Dominguez told AFP.
Nearly 75 percent of Uruguay's 978 intensive care beds are occupied -- more than half by coronavirus patients, according to the SUMI medical society.
"We are at the end of our strength," said Dominguez of the ICU workload and mental burden of seeing so many patients die.
All hopes are on Uruguay's immunization campaign, which has so far provided a first dose for nearly a third of the population, and two doses for 10 percent.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
HEC reviews curricula for environmental sciences degree programme
ICC Asia looking forward to an action-packed Asia Cricket Week
Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 Ambassador
Greece hands Olympic flame to 2024 Paris Games hosts
Two Kyiv hospitals evacuating over feared Russian strikes
World must act on neurotech revolution, say experts
Charles & Catherine's cancer diagnoses
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
King Charles to resume some public duties during cancer treatment: palace
US defense chief announces $6 bn in security aid for Ukraine
Heavy rains cause damage to Spezand-Taftan railway track
Woman stabbed in Israel, attacker killed: police
More Stories From World
-
NFL will allow players to wear Guardian Cap helmets in games
6 hours ago -
Football: German Bundesliga table
6 hours ago -
Football: Italian Serie A result
6 hours ago -
Football: German Bundesliga results
6 hours ago -
US troops to leave Chad in second African state withdrawal
6 hours ago -
Plastics pollution may be solved without production cap: Canada minister
6 hours ago
-
Biden stalls on menthol cigarette ban fearing Black vote backlash
6 hours ago -
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
6 hours ago -
6,000 French police to welcome Olympic torch amid bonus boost
6 hours ago -
Taiwan hit by several quakes, strongest reaching 6.1-magnitude
7 hours ago -
'Ballistic' Bairstow stars as Punjab pull off record T20 chase
7 hours ago -
Tennis: ATP/WTA Madrid Open results - 2nd update
7 hours ago