Czech teens deployed to overwhelmed hospitals as COVID cases explode

“We help with hygiene, sometimes we draw blood, we do…” mid-sentence, Barbara Sásová looks over for help finding the right English word to describe her duties. “Sanitary work,” she says, nervously giggling. At just 18 years old, she’s a nurses’ assistant at a hospital in Kyjov, a small town in eastern Czech Republic less than half an hour from the Slovakian border.

The teenager attends a healthcare-focused high school nearby, but with schools shut down across the country to stem the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, she’s been catapulted into the adult world, inside a hospital where she is badly needed. Some of her colleagues are only 16, unable to vote, or even drive.

“I think it is our duty because we are the future of health workers,” Sásová said.

“The situation is very serious. The Czech health system never faced such a challenge before. Every day there is an increase of 1,000 sick health care workers. With 10 million people in the Czech Republic, this is a serious number,” said Dr. Milan Kubek, president of the Czech Medical Chamber.

As of October 28, according to Kubek, 15,433 health care workers have been sidelined with the virus; almost 3,000 of them are doctors. Most are catching the virus not at work, but on the streets, or from friends or relatives, Kubek believes. The numbers are so high that Czech hospitals are limping along with vital help from volunteers — who get bonus points for having medical experience — but beggars can’t be choosers.

“The health care system in the Czech Republic already collapsed because hospitals, with a few exceptions, are not able to provide long-term care for non-Covid patients,” said Jiri Vyhnal, the head ER doctor in Kyjov.

About 35 miles east, in the city of Zlín, 21-year-old Marie Hanackova, in her final year of nursing college, now logs 12-hour shifts caring for less-severe coronavirus patients.

“There is an insane panic here. People are simply afraid. During my practical training last year, they were calmer,” she told CNN, dressed in full hazmat gear.

Read the full article from CNN here