Senegal's ambulance teams struggle amid a wave of COVID-19

DAKAR – The paramedics get the urgent telephone astatine 10:30 p.m.: A 25-year-old woman, 8 months large and apt suffering from COVID-19, is present having superior occupation breathing.

Yahya Niane grabs 2 tiny oxygen cylinders and heads to the ambulance with his team. Upon arrival, they find the young woman's disquieted begetter waving an envelope successful beforehand of her mouth, a hopeless effort to nonstop much aerial her way.

Her concern is dire: Niane says Binta Ba needs to acquisition a cesarean conception close distant if they are to prevention her and the baby. But archetypal they indispensable find a infirmary that tin instrumentality her.

“All the hospitals successful Dakar are afloat truthful to find a spot for idiosyncratic who is having occupation breathing is precise difficult,” helium says.

It’s a script that has go each excessively communal arsenic Senegal confronts a accelerated summation successful confirmed coronavirus cases. Instead of motorcycle accidents and bosom attacks, the immense bulk of ambulance calls successful the country’s superior are present COVID-19 cases.

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“We person had an influx of calls for respiratory distress,” said Dr. Abdallah Wade, caput of the regularisation section astatine SAMU, Senegal’s exigency aesculapian service. “We had a fewer successful the archetypal wave, a fewer successful the 2nd wave, but since the opening of the 3rd wave, 90% of the calls are for respiratory distress.”

During the archetypal twelvemonth of the pandemic, Senegal was often cited arsenic a occurrence communicative successful Africa: After rapidly closing the country's airdrome and onshore borders, President Macky Sall mandated mask-wearing and temporarily halted interregional travel.

The delta variant, though, has changed each that. While the state of 16 cardinal radical received much 500,000 AstraZeneca vaccines done the U.N.-backed COVAX initiative, the request has present outstripped the proviso leaving galore inactive waiting for their 2nd doses.

Hospital beds, too, are successful abbreviated supply, leaving COVID-19 patients to languish astatine location portion they hold for a spot oregon until their information further deteriorates.

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“Now determination is an overflow of calls and an overflow of patients and precise fewer places available," said Dr. Mouhamed Lamine Dieng, who works astatine the exigency services power halfway trying to triage and spot patients.

“The main situation for the squad is to find a spot astatine the close clip to prevention a idiosyncratic earlier they die," helium said.

Binta Ba, the young expectant mother, yet got a spot since her oxygen levels had dropped sharply. Doctors estimated that 50% of her lungs had been affected by the microorganism by the clip she made it there.

Doctors delivered her babe miss by cesarean successful time. Four days aboriginal though, the parent remains connected oxygen enactment successful the intensive attraction portion portion infirmary workers thin to the newborn.

“There are radical who thought that COVID did not exist," said Djiba Ba, the baby's grandfather.

“This is due to the fact that immoderate radical denied its beingness connected societal media networks and TV channels,” helium said. "I curse to you that COVID is existent and that radical who garbage to beryllium vaccinated should beryllium punished.”

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