Cherkessk health workers complain of massive COVID-19 infection

The ambulance staff of the city of Cherkessk, the capital of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR) has recorded a series of video appeals about the coronavirus infection because of the shortage of protective means. As a result, the number of ambulance teams in operation has reduced by three times; patients waiting for ambulances for four to six hours, medics have informed.

Radkha Semyonova, a paramedic of one of the teams, has recorded a video appeal, in which she stated that she got infected with COVID-19 because of the absence of protective means. According to her story, she infected her mother, aunt and brother, with whom she lives. "This could have been avoided if our work had been properly organized," she says in a video posted on May 30 in the "politika09" public on the Instagram.

At night on May 30, the same public posted five more video appeals from Cherkessk ambulance workers. They spoke about the shortage of protective means. According to one of them, due to the lack of protective gowns, they have to wash and reuse them. She said that many medics have already become infected, or have left work and self-isolated due to suspected COVID-19. "The delays of [ambulance] arrivals are catastrophic," she has added.

"At the moment, <...> we have four instead of 13 [ambulance] cars on line. Calls are fulfilled with 4-6-hour delays," another ambulance medic has stated in the video.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 30, 2020 at 05:17 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.