In Venezuela, more Covid patients are being treated at home
CARACAS, Venezuela — Chef Carlos Páez has a long and tough road ahead after a serious case of COVID-19 that required a constant supply of oxygen. He is showing improvement, but his health is still fragile.Páez, however, didn’t receive treatment at one of Venezuela’s hospitals despite appallingly low oxygen saturation levels. He was treated at his home in the capital, Caracas, because it is not easy to find a bed at a public hospital these days — the outcome of a recent increase in coronavirus cases and chronic understaffing — and he was priced out of a private facility despite having health insurance.He is one of a growing number of coronavirus patients who are choosing to be cared for by health care professionals at home during their illness, even if their cases warranted hospital stays.“I don’t know what I would have done,” Páez, a grill master, said, referring to the home health service. The 55-year-old is still hooked to an oxygen concentrator and has difficulty speaking.The South American country has recently seen a spike in COVID-19 cases, which the government has partially attributed to a virus variant that scientists believe originated in neighboring Brazil. The increase has pushed already struggling
