English

Minsk's Hospital No. 3 said to be packed with patients with acute respiratory disease, pneumonia

Minsk's Hospital No. 3 is overcrowded with patients with acute respiratory disease and pneumonia, prominent human rights defender Ales Byalyatski, who is being treated in the hospital for pneumonia, told BelaPAN.

According to Mr. Byalyatski, he overheard doctors say that there were three times more such patients than usual.

"The hospital is like in wartime," he said. "We have six patients in each of the nine wards. Seventeen more people are lying in beds in the corridor, that is, there is no room for them in the wards. Men and women, old and young people are lying in the corridor together. The gastroenterology unit is now occupied by flu patients."

Mr. Byalyatski himself stayed two days in the corridor until a bed in a ward became vacant.

Nevertheless, there is no shortage of medications, he said.

Mr. Byalyatski is vice president of the International Human Rights Federation.