MUSCAT — Hospitals in Oman are facing an acute shortage of beds as COVID-19 cases have more than tripled in the past month, with authorities recording 1,806 new infections and 19 deaths on Monday.

The surge in infections has forced overwhelmed hospitals in the Sultanate to turn away patients, the Associated Press reported citing local media reports.

The main COVID-19 field hospital in Muscat, the capital, surpassed 90 percent occupancy and its intensive care beds are now completely full, the Omani News Agency (ONA) reported on Monday.

Dr. Nabil bin Muhammed al-Lawait, the Muscat field hospital director said in a statement to Oman News Agency (ONA) that the hospital’s capacity has been raised to 150 beds, with 50 beds added since May 21, 2021.

Al-Lawatia pointed out that the hospital received 31 patients on Sunday and that the facility received 24 or more patients on a daily average recently.

“The longer the patients stay at the hospital, the more pressure is exerted on the facility’s ability to receive new cases. The hospital is undergoing a huge pressure as the number of new cases keeps rising,” said Dr. Nabil.

He explained that the cases to which the hospital is attending currently are more extreme, compared to similar instances during the last wave of infections.

“The cases that reach us are ones suffering a sharp shortage in oxygen or obvious damage to the respiratory system, which show right from the first week of symptoms,” said Dr. Nabil, noting that such symptoms used to appear in the second week after infection, which proves that this variant of the virus is more ferocious.

Dr. Nabil Al-Lawatia said that most of the cases received at the Field Hospital are those of patients aged less than 60 years. measures.

Oman has so far reported 236,440 COVID-19 cases, 211,494 recoveries, and 2,532 virus-related deaths. — Agencies