COVID-19 patients exceeding Manaung Hospital’s capacity to be sent to Taungup

By Aung Kaung Zaw 02 Sep 2020

Aung Kaung Zaw| DMG
2 September, Manaung

Any COVID-19 cases that exceed Manaung Hospital’s 10-patient coronavirus capacity will be transferred to the 100-bed hospital in Taungup, according to Dr. U Saw Min, the superintendent of Manaung Hospital.

The first COVID-19 case in Manaung Township was reported on August 28, and swabs have been taken from 38 others in the township including people who had close contact with the patient. The swabs have been sent to the lab for testing, said Dr. U Saw Min.

Manaung Hospital has sufficient nurse staffing but there is only one doctor and another doctor will be required if coronavirus cases rise as expected, he said.

“There should be two doctors during this time to fight COVID-19. A volunteer doctor from Insein in Yangon said he will come and help,” Dr. U Saw Min said.

Currently, express boats are not running regularly between Manaung and Taungup, and the motorway between Taungup and Yangon is also restricted, so there are difficulties sending swabs to lab for COVID-19 testing, said U Kyaw Moe Naing, chair of Saydanar Shin Social Support Association in Manaung Township.

“We have to charter an express boat to go to Taungup. And we face difficulty getting a car to send the swabs to Yangon,” he said. “The superintendent of the township hospital and our team have to spend our money on the transportation costs to send the swabs. We’d like to ask the government to deal with these difficulties.”

Case No. 641, the first COVID-19 patient in Manaung, is reportedly in good health.
As of September 2 at 8 p.m, a total of 464 COVID-19 cases were reported in Arakan State.

Prior to the outbreak that started on August 16, there had been just 16 coronavirus cases in total reported in Arakan State since the beginning of the pandemic.