Doctors warn of possible hospital collapse in Australia after reopening
SYDNEY. KAZINFORM The much-anticipated reopening of Australia, which is conditional upon a high vaccination rate, may cause the public hospital system to collapse, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) warned on Thursday.
Australia has been combating a persistent Covid-19 outbreak linked to the Delta variant detected in Sydney in the middle of the year, EFE reports.
The states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria have proposed an easing of the lockdown and restrictions imposed to contain Covid-19 once 70 percent of the adult population is vaccinated, in line with a plan agreed at the end of July between the federal government and the country's regions.
But the AMA said in a statement that this plan must be reviewed to take into account the current capacity of the country's hospitals in the face of an increase in Covid-19 cases and the impact on the care of other patients.
«If we throw open the doors to COVID we risk seeing our public hospitals collapse and part of this stems from a long-term lack of investment in public hospital capacity by state and federal governments,» AMA President Omar Khorshid said.
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