Russia's COVID war: 'This disease spares no one'
The wards are full in this hospital in Volzhkiy, Russia.
As the country battles with a new wave of coronavirus infections, increasing numbers of admissions are putting the health service under strain and many of its doctors and nurses are reaching breaking point.
Hospital 1, just outside of Volgograd in southwest Russia, had no extra bed capacity earlier this week, as Deputy Chief Physician Roman Mironov explains:
“At the moment the hospital is completely full. It has 540 beds, 490 patients are now in the wards, and 50 patients are in the intensive care unit. We are completely full. Most of them - 98-99% - are not vaccinated."
Only around 35% of the country have had two doses of a coronavirus vaccine.
Record high cases, which have been blamed on slow vaccination rates, have prompted the authorities to reimpose partial lockdown measures.
On Tuesday, Russia reported 1,106 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest figure since the start of the pandemic.
Yelena, a medic in the hospital in Volzhskiy, has been working with COVID patients since the start of the pandemic, but says this time the situation in Russia feels more grave.
"The disease is more severe, with more complications. I think that the last year it was easier."
"This disease spares no one.”
