Myanmar’s health care system is struggling to deal with the mass casualties as the death toll jumped to 2,056 on Monday after a massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake devastated several regions of the country.
The two largest urban areas, Mandalay and Naypyidaw, are trying to cope with the high influx of patients, according to media reports.
“The hospital is always packed with patients, even under normal circumstances. During this time of emergency, there is hardly enough space or supplies to treat everyone coming in. But the staff keep doing their jobs, despite the lack of manpower,” said a woman in her 50s living in Naypyidaw speaking to the media.
Reports suggest that the four years of military junta rule have left the healthcare system in an abysmal situation. Before last Friday’s devastating earthquake that hit Myanmar, several hospitals were already under siege.
In Mandalay, an estimated 80 per cent of all medical staff joined the Civil Disobedience Movement against the military junta. The region has been especially hard hit as seven private hospitals in the city lost their licenses for hiring former government hospital staff in the last month.
“Some private hospitals in Mandalay had already ceased operations before the earthquake due to the junta’s orders. Most of the remaining private hospitals have been damaged and are unable to function, forcing nearly all of them to shut down,” a doctor based in Yangon told media outlet Myanmar Now.
Witnesses at the regime-run Mandalay General Hospital hours described scenes of chaos after the quake struck, with patients lying on the ground due to a lack of beds.
“From the entrance to the hospital, all I could see was patients scattered everywhere, covered in blood. Some doctors were sitting, overwhelmed and unable to assist,” a witness told Myanmar Now.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Friday’s earthquake in Myanmar has risen to 2,056, with approximately 3,900 people injured and nearly 270 reported missing, according to the country’s State Administration Council Information Team on Monday, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Myanmar’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology reported that 36 aftershocks, with magnitudes ranging from 2.8 to 7.5, had occurred as of Monday morning.
A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake, followed by a 6.4 magnitude aftershock minutes later, struck Myanmar’s Mandalay region on Friday, causing massive casualties and damage in multiple countries.
