How COVID-19 has overwhelmed ICUs in Syrian capital Damascus

Officials say ICUs dedicated to coronavirus patients have reached full capacity across Damascus.

Inside the emergency room of a hospital in the Syrian capital, Damascus, an elderly woman with COVID-19 waited for a bed in the ICU packed with coronavirus patients. Sitting on a wheelchair barely an arms-length from another patient, the woman in her 70s tilted her head back as a doctor wedged between them covered her face with an oxygen mask. “We receive many cases who need a ventilator, and there are many patients who need intensive care,” said the doctor, Asma Sbayni of Mouwasat Hospital, one of the largest in Damascus.