It is reported that in early April, the outbreak of clustered novel coronavirus infection in many places in Thailand, the capital Bangkok has also become one of the hardest hit. Bangkok’s medical system was on the verge of collapse as the number of new confirmed cases surged daily, prompting the city government to open four mobile cabin hospitals to cope with the increasingly serious epidemic.
A total of 1767 new cases were confirmed in Thailand on April 19, with 347 in Bangkok, being highest in the country, according to data released by Thailand’s COVID-19 Management Center.
According to the regulations of the Thai government, all confirmed cases of COVID-19 had to be hospitalized and managed uniformly to reduce transmission, which also led to unprecedented challenges for Bangkok’s health care system.
In order to respond the above situation, in addition to the addition of beds for critically ill patients, Bangkok municipal government has opened three square cabin hospitals since April 8. The three square cabin hospitals, which were rebuilt from a nursing home, a hospital and a sports stadium, have all started to receive patients. The fourth Bangkok mobile cabin hospital which was reconstructed by stadium officially accepted patients on 19th. The four mobile cabin hospitals can provide a total of about 1650 beds.
Bangkok has enough hospital beds to meet the needs of patients, Bangkok Mayor Asavin said during an inspection of the mobile cabin hospital which be reconstructed by stadium in Bangkok on the 18th. “The situation in Bangkok is very serious right now.
With beds provided by all the hospitals, the cabin hospitals and the Ministry of Health, Bangkok can provide beds for 5,000 to 6,000 patients at most, but I believe the epidemic will not reach this level and should be alleviated and controlled in the near future, “he said.
As for whether the conditions in the cabin mobile hospital meet the quarantine standards of the Ministry of Health and whether cross-infection could be caused, Suusan, the general of the Bangkok Municipal Medical Bureau, said, “The beds are set up in strict accordance with the requirements of the distance of 1.5 meters apart. Everyone must wear a mask during the whole process and wash hands and disinfect at all times. We hope people to be reassured that it is safe to be hospitalized and isolated here.”
Despite confronting the unprecedented workload, the city’s health system is struggling to address the shortages of manpower and equipment ,Suisan said.
He said: “We are also reducing or postponing all unnecessary or non-urgent operations and treatments in the current government policy of home working.
At the same time, we also provide adjuvant care and services for non-Coronavirus patients, such as remote medication delivery and home blood drawing, so that patients can have simple testing and treatment at home, reducing the probability of going to the hospital.”
At present, in addition to Bangkok, the epidemic situation is also relatively serious in Chiang Mai, Ba Shu and other prefectures of Thailand. Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Anuttin Thorn recently ordered local hospitals and hotels to start hospital services in hotels models as soon as possible and add more hospital beds to cope with a possible increase in severe cases.