The
city of Wuhan went under quarantine earlier this week, leaving local hospitals
alone to care for an overwhelming number of patients at the epicenter of the
novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, outbreak.
Hospital
staff in Wuhan are wearing adult diapers because they don’t have time to use
the bathroom in between treating coronavirus patients, The Washington Post
reported.
The
city, which has about 11 million residents, went under an unprecedented
quarantine on Thursday local time amid the novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV,
outbreak. The lockdown has resulted in local hospitals being overwhelmed with
patients seeking treatment in the city.
Photos
and videos circulating on social media show people packed into small hallways
and doctors treating patients sitting on the floor.
The
Post reported that medical staff are also wearing diapers so they don’t have to
take off their hazmat suits in case they rip it and can’t get a new one due to
lack of supplies.
Along
with the shortage of hazmat suits, hospitals are also experiencing a low supply
of other protective gear, such as surgical masks and protective goggles,
according to ThePaper.com, a Chinese news site, citied by The Post.
“We
know that the protective suit we wear could be the last one we have, and we can’t
afford to waste anything,” a Wuhan Union Hospital doctor wrote on Weibo.
The
abundance of patients and overwhelming work has been taking a mental toll on
medical staff in the city, as doctors worry of contracting the disease
themselves.
Beijing-based
therapist Candice Qin told The Post that she talked to a doctor who was
infected by a patient, saying the doctor was “devastated.” Qin added
that the doctor isolated herself in her apartment without telling her parents,
feeling a “sense of helplessness and loneliness.”
“I
think it is a strain for every doctor and every nurse in Wuhan, both physically
and mentally,” Qin told The Post. “We know that patients are worried,
but we should bear in mind that doctors are just as human as well.”