Belgian ambulance crews say they risk being overwhelmed by COVID

Belgian ambulance crews say they are at risk of being overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, running out of capacity to handle other calls.

One ambulance company, NAAB Ambulance Services, said COVID cases now make up more than 70% of its callouts, having risen from just 10% at the start of October.

Dressed in a full white hazmat suit and wearing a protective face mask, one of its paramedics, Jessy Friant, said it was becoming difficult to cope with the workload.

“The number of COVID-19 patients transported every day is around 30 to 40, it’s a 70% increase of our activity,” Friant told Reuters in Peronnes-lez-Binche near the French border.

In a statement, the company’s CEO, Arnaud Franchini, called for stronger nationwide measures to curb the spread of the virus.

“Without much stronger measures than those currently in place, we are going straight into a wall,” Franchini said.