Coronavirus

Only three ICU beds available in Rio de Janeiro

Only three ICU beds available in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro. Photo: PMRJ

Cable news channel GloboNews reports that the city of Rio de Janeiro has only three intensive care beds available among those set aside for Covid-19 patients. Statewide, the ICU occupancy rate reaches 93 percent in public hospitals. 

Despite the imminent collapse of its public healthcare system, the city of Rio de Janeiro has over 1,800 beds unfit for use, due to a lack of equipment, staff, or broken ventilators.

Several initiatives have proposed unifying the public and private healthcare systems, as the number of ICU beds per 100,000 people on the private network is five times that of the public system.