Two hospitals close in Azerbaijan after officials point finger at treatment centers as source of new outbreak
A sharp increase in coronavirus cases in the Azerbaijani city of Shirvan has forced the government to take extraordinary measures.
A task force has been sent to the city, and two hospitals have been forbidden to admit any new patients.
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Specialists from TABIB (Azerbaijani Management Union of Medical Territorial Units) say the increase in the spread of COVID-19 in the city is related to medical institutions in the region. Experts have found serious problems in the local hospitals, internal memos say.
They decided not to close the whole city, but only the source of the infection, which was the two hospitals. This decision was taken on the basis of the experience gained in the last few months and in accordance with the recommendation of the World Health Organisation’s chief epidemiologist.
The citizens of Shirvan have already been warned about the decision to temporarily halt the acceptance of new patients at the central hospital and the diagnostic treatment centre. Patients who are already in hospital will continue to be treated.
Shirvan’s hospitals have been serving as the main COVID treatment centres for patients from other hospitals in the region for several months now.
“The number of coronavirus patients has risen due to the closure of hospitals in other regions, so people are all coming to these hospitals”, wrote the blogger and journalist, Emil Memmedov, on his Facebook page.
The total number of cases of coronavirus in Azerbaijan is 35,707. Out of that total, 522 patients have died, while 1,904 are still undergoing treatment.
