Twenty-six healthcare workers at Romania’s Elias Hospital where top public figures are treated have tested positive for Covid-19.
The hospital said that it was no longer admitting patients to the neurology department following the outbreak. Dozens more health staff have been tested.
Surgery and postoperative care are currently operating on a limited schedule after staff caught the virus.
A press statement said that 11 healthcare workers at the neurology department had tested positive. The department has been closed for a fortnight.
Patients will be discharged or transferred to other hospitals.
Surgery and postoperative care will be limited until Oct. 26 after 15 health staff there were confirmed to have the virus.
“Non-urgent surgery will be resolved when it can be scheduled after that date,” the statement said.
The hospital said it was waiting for the results of another 64 tests. There was no word on whether patients had also caught the virus at the hospital.
Elias Hospital is traditionally where presidents, politicians and other public figures are treated.
Romanian medics and heath staff have complained of insufficient protective equipment, as well exhaustion and stress caused by dealing with health crisis.
Doctors in the southern city of Ploiesti and Timisoara in the southwest warned Tuesday that there was a shortage of beds in intensive care units and medics had to make patients wait or decide who to transfer to intensive care and who could wait.
The health ministry said on Oct. 8 that more than 5,200 health professionals had been infected with the novel coronavirus.
The figure includes 834 doctors, 2,363 nurses, 80 ambulance staff and about 2,000 employees from other departments in the healthcare system.
