Myanmar to Use Private Hospitals to Fight COVID-19
By Zaw Zaw Htwe 27 October 2020
Yangon – Myanmar’s private hospitals and clinics will be allowed to treat COVID-19 patients to ease the burden on government hospitals overloaded with coronavirus cases, according to State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Tuesday, Myanmar reported 46,200 COVID-19 cases, including 1,122 fatalities and 26,007 recoveries.
More than 20,100 COVID-19 patients have so far been treated at government hospitals free of charge.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases are detected each day while up to 1,000 are discharged from hospitals.
In a televised speech on Monday evening, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said the government is arranging for private hospitals and clinics to give treatment.
The Ministry of Health and Sport now has a greater level of understanding of how to overcome coronavirus and how to treat patients, said Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The ministry has produced rules for the private sector for treating COVID-19 patients, she said.
“Patients will be able to make their own choices and give some relief to government hospitals,” said Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Patients will have to pay for private care, she added.
“We believe that this will help us confront COVID-19.”
Myanmar has been experiencing a second wave of COVID-19 with the daily cases rising sharply since Aug. 16 when the country’s first domestic transmission in a month was detected in the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe.
Yangon has become the country’s COVID-19 hotspot and is struggling with a shortage of hospital beds.
The city is arranging more than 10,000 hospital beds by constructing more than five temporary COVID-19 hospitals.
Myanmar is also seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases outside Yangon, amid a slowing of new cases in the commercial capital.
The number of new cases reported in Yangon each day has been decreasing over the past two weeks since reaching a peak of more than 1,900 cases on Oct. 10.
Meanwhile, between 20 and more than 100 new daily cases have been reported in other areas, including Rakhine State and Bago, Mandalay and Ayeyarwady regions.
On Monday, Yangon reported 35,823 cases, followed by Rakhine State with 2,761 cases, Bago Region with 2,440, Mandalay Region with 1,615 and Ayeyarwady Region with 914 cases.
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