Covid-19 patients at Sittwe Hospital lack access to drinking water, bedding

By DMG 08 Mar 2022

DMG Newsroom
8 March 2022, Sittwe 

Covid-19 patients receiving treatment at the public hospital in Sittwe report needing basics such as drinking water and bedding as they fulfil mandatory isolation stays at the Arakan State capital’s largest medical facility. 

The Covid-19 patients are isolated inside a two-storey building on the Sittwe General Hospital grounds. Most of the patients have found themselves there unexpectedly after testing positive for Covid-19 as they submitted to pre-flight screening for the virus, a new requirement as of mid-February. 

They are required to be isolated at the hospital for five days. The Covid-19 patients said they were supplied with meals, but were not given any drinking water or bedding since arriving at the hospital. 

“We are provided with meals, but there is no water. It is said that there are no donors [to donate drinking water], and we eat because there are [food] donors. It is not OK for people who are not Sittwe natives and who do not have friends here,” a Covid-19 patient who asked to remain anonymous told DMG. 

Another Covid-19 patient at the hospital who asked for anonymity said: “We have to buy [drinking water] and almost everything else from outside. There is not even soap in the bathrooms and washbasins.” 

DMG was unable to obtain comment from Sittwe General Hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr. Kyi Lwin, about reports of basic supply shortages at the Covid-19 unit. 

The junta-controlled Ministry of Health now requires air travellers, regardless of vaccination status, to take a Covid-19 test no more than 48 hours ahead of their flight. Only those who test negative are allowed to board. 

According to a March 5 report from the Arakan State Covid-19 Control and Response Committee, there were 165 Covid-19 patients receiving treatment at hospitals in the state; 93 of them in Sittwe.