Sunday with Eden | Mar 26,2022
In full personal protective gear, medical staff attend to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) patients inside a makeshift intensive care unit (ICU) at Millennium Hall on Africa Avenue (Bole Road). These are not just some of the over 48,000 people reported to have contracted the virus. They are among the 829 severe cases that required hospitalisation by late last week.
Medical oxygen and ventilators are needed to keep them breathing. Glucose needs to be injected into their veins to keep their energy up, and careful monitoring is carried out to see if any complications arise. And yet, as was the fate of the patient in the photo (upper right) and 2,915 others that have been reported to have passed away thus far, recovery is not guaranteed.
On the global scale, and without accounting for poor record-keeping and data gathering in places such as Ethiopia, the number of cases and deaths is but a drop in the bucket. Around 130 million have caught the virus, and over 2.8 million have died globally. But what has prompted the authorities to pass laws banning gatherings of more than 50 people and being in public without a face mask was a recent spike in infection rates.
Since the first case was recorded around a year ago, infection rates jumped to 20pc, and medical centres began to turn patients away for lack of beds. Patients began dying by the dozens each day. It put a damper even on the occasion of the delivery of 2.2 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines in the middle of last month, not to mention another 300,000 from China more recently.
Health authorities are looking to curb the spread of the virus by enforcing social distancing – at least legally – and expanding the health infrastructure. Most recently, medical equipment such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines – used to amplify and replicate DNA samples – and ventilators were obtained through a 30-million-dollar concessional loan from the South Korean Eximbank.
But even with what seems to be the third-wave of COVID-19, public health experts warn that “tough times are ahead” and "Ethiopia is living through its worst times." Considering the country’s weak health infrastructure, prevention is the better alternative, these experts urge. It is a hapless plea that continues to contend with the public’s pandemic fatigue.
You can read the full story here
PUBLISHED ON
Apr 03,2021 [ VOL
22 , NO
1092]
Sunday with Eden | Mar 26,2022
Editorial | Apr 26,2019
Commentaries | Jul 23,2022
Verbatim | Nov 18,2023
Fortune News | Jun 11,2022
Films Review | Jun 20,2020
In-Picture | Feb 15,2020
Fortune News | Nov 13,2021
Fortune News | Mar 18,2023
Life Matters | Aug 22,2020
Aug 18 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Although predictable Yonas Zerihun's job in the ride-hailing service is not immune to...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Investors who rely on tractors, trucks, and field vehicles for commuting, transportin...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
The cracks in Ethiopia's higher education system were laid bare during a synthesis re...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Construction authorities have unveiled a price adjustment implementation manual for s...
Oct 12 , 2024
In his inaugural address on October 27, 2024, Taye Atseqesellasie, the fifth presiden...
Oct 5 , 2024
Not long ago, the sight of exchange bureaus in Addis Abeba was as rare as a cloudless...
Sep 28 , 2024
In the early 2010s, Ethiopian authorities found themselves at odds with the Internati...
Sep 21 , 2024
A nurse in Addis Abeba shares a cramped one-room apartment with three colleagues. Her...
Loading your updates...