BUCHAREST, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The continuous increase in the number of COVID-19 patients has brought the medical system close to the limit in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, with less than 100 free hospital beds left currently in the city, a municipal health official warned on Monday.
"1,320 coronavirus patients are hospitalized in municipal health institutions, and the maximum capacity is 1,400 treatment beds," Tatiana Bucearschi, head of the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Health, told a municipal services meeting.
Official statistics show that nearly 40 percent of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the country are now in hospitals in the capital.
According to Bucearschi, the municipal health institutions also created a surplus of 237 seats late last week.
"In all municipal health institutions, additional treatment places have been created, treatment places have been improvised even in the employees' offices," she was quoted as saying by the official Moldpres news agency.
Moldova reported 6,566 new COVID-19 cases last week, up from 5,617 in the previous week, according to the data released on Monday by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection.
To date, 176,752 cases and 3,780 deaths have been registered in the country.
The central authorities are currently making final preparations for a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign structured in three stages, as the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines is set to arrive in Moldova through the COVAX program by the end of this month.
Globally, as many as 70 candidate vaccines are already in clinical trials in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to the latest information published by the World Health Organization. Enditem
