ICU bed occupancy drops 52%

NAMPAWINDHOEKThe minister of health and social services, Dr Kalumbi Shangula, says the hospital bed occupancy rate, especially in intensive care units, has significantly improved in most of the regions following a decline in the Covid-19 infection rate over the past few weeks.During the 31st public Covid-19 briefing on Friday, Shangula said the bed occupancy rate had dropped from 55% to 45% in general isolation wards, and from 111% to 53% in intensive care units, during the last two weeks.He said after a period of sharp increases in Covid-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths, Namibia has started to observe a decline in the number of new infections.During the period of 16–29 July 2021, a total of 8 064 new Covid-19 cases were reported, compared to 19 157 cases reported between 30 June and 15 July 2021.He added, however, that the number of Covid-19 deaths continues to be a matter of great concern as high death rates are still being reported, particularly among older people and those with underlying illnesses.During the period of 16–29 July 2021, 628 Namibians died from Covid-19.Vaccination laggingShangula also expressed concern about the slow progress in vaccination in certain regions.He said he had visited Oshikoto, Oshana and Omusati last week, where he noticed that some sites had an extremely low vaccine uptake, especially in Omusati, where sites were either empty or only a few people had turned up.“While vaccination teams were deployed at the sites, members of the public have not shown up. According to vaccination officials, the daily average of vaccines at their respective sites per day is only in two-digit figures. This is a cause for serious concern, and I wish to use this platform to call on all eligible persons to go for vaccination,” Shangula said.

ICU bed occupancy drops 52%

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

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ICU bed occupancy drops 52%

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

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