Hospitals in northern Shan State are turning people away who are infected with COVID-19 because there are no longer any beds left.

According to a person from Garuna Volunteer Team in Muse, over 200 people tested positive in the town next to the Chinese border. When the new hospital filled up, the source said medical staff transferred 17 patients to the older hospital and instructed everyone else with the disease to stay at home. “The situation is completely different from how it was under the civilian government. There are not enough doctors, oxygen and spaces for patients.”

Despite the health crisis the country is facing, the source suspects the doctors and volunteers who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement won’t return to work until the end of the military regime.

At the hospital in Namkham, medical staff separated the many COVID-19 cases from other patients. But like in Muse, they also don’t have enough oxygen for everyone who needs it. There are 139 people who tested positive, while 16 recovered and 8 died from the disease.

As cases continue to rise in northern Shan State, some residents have taken matters into their own hands by locking down their neighbourhoods.