Czech Republic asks other countries for help with COVID patients

The country has been one of the hardest hit globally in recent weeks as many regional hospitals had to transfer their patients elsewhere.

The Czech Republic has asked Germany, Switzerland and Poland to take in dozens of COVID-19 patients as the situation in its own hospitals has reached a critical point, Prague’s Health Ministry said. The country of 10.7 million has been one of the hardest hit globally in recent weeks as many regional hospitals, overwhelmed by the inflow of coronavirus patients, had to transfer them elsewhere, in some cases taking them hundreds of kilometres away. “The large number of newly infected patients has intensified pressure on the healthcare system, and the number of patients requiring hospitalisation is growing,” the ministry said on Friday.