As Russia's COVID-19 toll surges, a Siberian hospital struggles to cope

The beds at the intensive care unit at this Siberian hospital rarely stay empty for long. Doctors at Hospital No. 2 in the Russian city of Biysk are having to cope with an unprecedented surge of coronavirus patients, many of whom are unvaccinated. Doctors at the hospital have to work up to three 24-hour shifts in a row. The work is much harder than during the first wave of the pandemic last year, deputy chief doctor Olga Kaurova said. 'Last year we kept the numbers at 23-24 people. Today we have 65 people in intensive care,' Kaurova told Tolk Channel, a local media outlet, on Wednesday. 'Most of our patients in the ICU are not vaccinated.'