Hadassah Ein Kerem Spokesperson Hadar Alboim released a statement on Thursday notifying the public that the condition of an 89-year-old woman who was diagnosed with coronavirus and who is hospitalized there had deteriorated.

The woman is now listed as being in critical condition. Alboim said that she is suffering from rapid respiratory deterioration.

Additionally, two new patients were brought to the hospital on Thursday, both in light condition.

Hadassah is keeping all of the Corona patients in a separate wing of their “old” building. The wing is separate from all of the other sections of the hospital. There are currently 12 patients in the department. Aside from the 89-year-old woman, two other patients are in moderate condition and the others are all listed as being in light condition.

Alboim also shared some positive news that four patients from Hadassah were well enough to be taken from the infectious diseases wing of the hospital and transported to the Dan Panorama hotel in Tel Aviv. Two other corona patients were also released and were transferred to the Shmuel Harofeh rehabilitation center where they will be looked after and continue their treatment.

In a bit of a turnaround, the Health Ministry called upon United Hatzalah of Israel to use their ambulances to transport some of these patients, as there is a shortage of ambulances and drivers across the country, and in particular in Yerushalyim. The Ministry has refrained from utilizing the resources of United Hatzalah until now and favored only utilizing Magen David Adom resources and ambulances for anything related to the Coronavirus. Now that MDA’s teams are spread thin the Ministry had no choice but to enlist the help of United Hatzalah.

MDA is spread thin, particularly in Yerushalayim, following the Head of the region Shlomo Petrover, being recently diagnosed with Covid-19 coronavirus. Due to his diagnosis, a large number of MDA staff and volunteers who work out of the MDA center in Yerushalayim were required to enter into quarantine, a move that has required many MDA ambulance teams to do far more shifts than regularly scheduled.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)