Residents of Dagestan district centre claim threat of mass deaths

In the Gergebil District of Dagestan, hospitals are overcrowded; in a few days, 12 people died, local residents report, complaining about the absence of drugs and ALV (artificial lung ventilation) devices in hospitals.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Dagestan ranks fifth in Russia in the number of coronavirus infection cases, ahead of other regions of Southern Russia.

On April 30, an appeal appeared in the Instagram public "tut.dagestan", written on behalf of the residents of the village of Gergebil – one of the republic's district centres. "In our village, 12 people have died in the past few days. The same number of patients are in extremely grave condition. Almost all the villagers are sick; 90% for sure. Hospitals are overcrowded; many patients are in beds at home. There are no diagnostic tools in hospitals, no drugs and no consumables. Everything the hospitals have, including oxygen cylinders, was purchased by residents themselves for their own money," says the statement.

There are virtually no ALV devices in the local hospital, the publication asserts. "There's only one working ALV device in the intensive care unit: it's very old, and it's impossible to treat patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome on it. Until the village has completely died out, and everything is moving towards this, authorities must intervene and do something. It's just awful. The village has never seen so many deaths within such a short period of time. People who should solve these problems have washed their hands off; and ordinary people are doing their best to do their job," says the statement on behalf of the villagers.

Same problems exist in other districts, and even in Makhachkala, Instagram users have pointed out in their comments to the appeal of Gergebil villagers. "Not only in Gergebil, all districts have such a horror; and the authorities are idling," the user putnik05_ has stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 2, 2020 at 12:10 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.