(CN) – In France, teams of medics labor to place patients strapped to heavy gurneys onto a high-speed train. Italian patients gasping for life are being flown over the Alps to German hospitals. About 40 Italian doctors and medical workers have been killed by the coronavirus. In Spain, at 8 p.m. every night, thousands come to their windows and onto their balconies to clap in support of medical workers.
A month into a devastating outbreak of the respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus, Europe's medical system is overwhelmed as tens of thousands of people need medical care to survive infections caused by the virus and its attacks on a person's lungs.
Europe is the epicenter of the global pandemic and it is showing the world just how brutal an outbreak can be on a country's medical system.
Thursday proved to be another grim day. Spain reported 655 more deaths, Italy 662 more victims and the United Kingdom 115 new deaths. So far, more than 15,000 people across Europe have died.
And there's no end in sight as the virus continues to spread.
On Thursday, London was facing a “continuous tsunami” of patients, a high-ranking health official told BBC radio. Chris Hopson said London hospitals are handling an “explosion of demand” from seriously ill patients. A field hospital with 4,000 beds is under construction in London and 10 other makeshift hospitals are slated to be opened elsewhere in the U.K.
The deadly virus known as Covid-19 is a growing reality in far-off Russia too, which until this week had reported few cases.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russians in a televised address to not work for a week and to stay home. He said workers will be paid in full. But he also said the threat would be contained quickly and said there was no reason to panic. Still, international flights are being grounded.
Moscow and St. Petersburg are going farther and closing nonessential businesses and services, cafes, shops and parks for a week.
On Wednesday, Moscow, where the most cases have been found in Russia, reported two deaths. So far, Russia has reported only three deaths linked to the virus and 840 confirmed cases. Many believe the official tally is low. A major outbreak in Russia will test the country's already strained and ill-equipped medical system.
As the pandemic seriously tests Europe's health system, extraordinary measures are being taken.
In Strasbourg, medics evacuated about 20 coronavirus patients on a high-speed train Thursday morning. The train was employed to relieve the Alsace region in eastern France, the country's epicenter. More than 1,300 people in France have died. The French military has also begun evacuating patients from Alsace by aircraft. Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland are also taking in French patients.
With the hospital in Mulhouse in Alsace swamped, the French military set up an emergency field hospital. On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron, donning a mask, visited the field hospital and paid tribute to the exhausted medical workers. He also promised a massive injection of investment into the medical system.
Germany is now taking patients from hard-hit Italy. Luigi Angelo, the head of operations with Italy's Civil Protection, said at a news conference that German aircraft took two patients to Dresden and five more to other hospitals.
In Spain, the military is now helping by setting up field hospitals, transporting medical supplies and disinfecting nursing homes.