Portugal is running out of IC beds for COVID patients

LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal said on Saturday that there are only seven empty beds left in the intensive care units (ICUs) set up for COVID-19 cases on the mainland as a spate of infections prompted authorities to make some critical send patients to Portuguese islands.

Data from the Ministry of Health showed that of the 850 ICU beds assigned to COVID-19 cases on the mainland, a record 843 beds were now occupied. The country of 10 million people has 420 additional ICU beds for those with other conditions.

The ministry said the number of daily infections was 12,435, down from Thursday’s record, while 293 were killed.

Portugal, which has reported a total of 12,179 COVID-19 deaths and 711,018 cases so far, has the world’s highest seven-day moving average of cases and deaths per capita, according to the data tracker www.ourworldindata.org.

The Justice Department said Friday that the Institute of Forensics, which carries out autopsies for police and others, among other things, had requested a refrigerated van to protect bodies because funeral homes could not transport them quickly enough.

An association representing funeral homes said public hospitals also no longer had a refrigerated space to keep bodies. Some hospitals have installed refrigerated containers to reduce the pressure on their morgues.

As beds on the mainland were running low, three patients in need of critical care were transferred Friday from Lisbon to the Portuguese island of Madeira, where the health system is under less pressure.

The government has attributed the rise in infections to a decision to relax restrictions over the Christmas season, blaming the rate at which infections have spread to a new variant first discovered in Britain.

Portuguese health institute Ricardo Jorge told Lusa news agency that the variant is likely to be responsible for 65% of new COVID-19 cases within three weeks. Portugal has extended the lockdown until mid-February and imposed strict travel restrictions.