With only two oxygen cylinders, the emergency unit of Mugda Medical College Hospital in the capital is struggling to cope with the influx of coronavirus patients.

Apart from treating follow-up patients, attending doctors and nurses in the emergency unit of the Covid-19-dedicated hospital were seen trying to serve the critical patients with severe respiratory problems.

Watching from a distance, this correspondent saw at least six such patients arrive at the hospital between 12:00pm and 2.30pm. But the emergency unit could only provide oxygen support to three of them with the available cylinders, which had to be switched from one patient to the other.

Since there were no beds vacant at the hospital, they referred all those patients to other public hospitals in the city.

Monir Hossain was one of them. A Titas Gas employee, Monir was carried to the hospital in an ambulance from Homna in Comilla.

"We have come all the way from Homna. But doctors here said they don't have vacant beds to admit my husband. They have referred us to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. But we are not sure if we can get a bed in DMCH," said Halima, Monir's wife.

"We requested the doctors to give him oxygen support till we find a suitable transport. But the doctors said that they won't be able to continue the support for long since they have already referred the patient to another hospital" said Halima.

Contacted last night, Halima said they eventually got a bed for her husband at Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital.

Jamaluddin was another patient who came to Mugda with severe respiratory problems. The 60-year-old was referred there after he was taken to Police Hospital in Rajarbagh.

Jamaluddin's daughter Kohinoor was facing a different kind of problem. The driver of the ambulance on which the 60-year-old patient was brought to Mugda Medical College Hospital was in a hurry to leave.

"The driver is repeatedly saying that I will have to get my father out of the ambulance. But if we do that, he won't have oxygen support. We also could not admit him at Mugda hospital. It is really a scary situation for us," said Kohinoor, before leaving with her father on the same ambulance in the hope of better luck at Suhrawardy or DMCH.

"Recently we have been facing a rush in the emergency unit. It happens often and it is normal. This time, too, we are facing a rush as Covid-19 transmission is rising in the country," Dr Asim Kumar Nath, director of Mugda Medical College Hospital, told The Daily Star yesterday.

He added, "We have only two oxygen support devices in the emergency unit. With limited logistics, it is tough to give emergency support to the patients. The situation becomes tougher when the patients' rush increases."