With the daily count of COVID-19 deaths in our country hovering around 25 in the second wave period, the death toll reached nearly 2,000 yesterday out of 93,600 cases.
Such deaths can mount over time as COVID-19 patients arrive in hospitals too late to seek health care for their life threatening conditions.
Too often, they were only taken to hospitals after their conditions became serious, and after they received medications at home, while under their own care. This situation demands a good health care system which is well equipped to deal with life threatening situations before the patients are taken to the hospital.
Besides, we should step up raising public awareness to ensure that the public are not anxious about seeking help at hospitals, as hospitals are specially equipped with necessary machines and supplied with medicines to treat COVID-19 patients. Today is not the time to become careless, as we all must remain ever vigilant.
Also, relatives are allowed to stay with patients at hospitals, if a patient’s health condition is serious.
Additionally, with the COVID-19 outbreak infecting around 1,400 daily, our country is facing an unprecedented public health emergency. In Myanmar, COVID prevention remains most important, as the cost of treatment is a very heavy burden for a country such as Myanmar, which is still a developing country.
Meanwhile, healthcare workers who are essential to the COVID-19 response are under the burden of treating COVID-19 patients.
Hence, we should seek ways to support medical institutions including volunteering in ward system, adjusting staff deployment and shift plans in advance.
While controlling the pandemic is clearly a priority, it is also imperative to take the long view as many of the risk factors for dying from covid-19—such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and deprivation—are also leading contributors to the COVID-19 mortality rate.
Other countries also face these challenges.
The local governments need to work with their healthcare communities to avert disaster through measures which can support healthcare workers and volunteers working on the front lines of to protect our lives.
The lessons of other countries with high infection rates must be learnt and should influence policy decisions for averting the disaster.
GNLM
