The Albanian government has readied a new hospital, Covid-4, in case a second coronavirus wave hits the country.
In March, the government began transforming a building that once housed a now-closed university, located alongside the Tirana-Durrës highway, into a hospital. On June 2, Prime Minister Edi Rama and Minister of Health Ogerta Manastirliu inaugurated the new hospital.
It contains 100 beds, and is intended to house coronavirus patients from their treatment at the hospital for Infectious Diseases until they fully recover.
Rama said that this hospital will be necessary if there is another wave of infections in the fall and the country is hit by a flux of infections that exceed the capacities of its existing hospitals.
Manastirliu announced that this new hospital, the Infectious Disease hospital, and the Sanatorium hospital now have a combined capacity of 500 beds.
The first floor of this quarantine hospital will serve to store PPE and as an ER providing basic services, whereas the other floors will serve to house patients.
Every floor will contain its own nursing sector, a pharmacy, a medical waste disposal unit, a radiography station and a simple laboratory. Some of the spaces will also be equipped with respirators.
