The Chareidi medical organizations that provide medical treatment for coronavirus patients at home say that there has been an unprecedented demand for oxygen machines and other medical equipment in recent weeks due to the surge in the infection rate, Kikar H’Shabbos reported.

As YWN reported in the past, many coronavirus patients prefer to remain at home rather than being evacuated to the hospital and Chareidi medical organizations have been doing their utmost to assist these patients by providing medical care at home along with lending out oxygen machines and other medical equipment.

One of those organizations is the renowned Yad Sarah, a medical assistance organization that operates throughout Israel, lending medical equipment to Israelis from dozens of its branches in various cities. A senior figure from the organization told Kikar H’Shabbos that they are collapsing under the current unprecedented demand for medical equipment. “The situation is a catastrophe,” he said succinctly, lacking more time to elaborate due to the never-ending calls for medical assistance.

Another chessed organization, the Chasdei Amram Gemach based in Mea Shearim, provided more details about the current situation.

Reb Yitzchak Markowitz, one of the members of the organization’s administration, said that the current situation is worse than it was Pesach time or Sukkos time. “There are more cases, and the cases are more serious, forcing us to evacuate the patients to hospitals,” he told Kikar. “It’s a catastrophe, the worst since the beginning of the pandemic. This past Shabbos, we ran out of oxygen machines. At the very last moment, they brought me a few machines.”

Markowitz said that currently there aren’t many coronavirus cases in Mea Shearim but there are serious outbreaks in Telzstone, Beitar Illit and Beit Shemesh.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)