The UK has sent an emergency medical team to Eswatini to help the southern African country deal with a surge in coronavirus cases.
The kingdom, formerly known as Swaziland, has a population of a million and seen around 500 people die from the virus.
“Earlier last year the local health services coped remarkably well and managed to keep the fatality rate relatively low,” Andy Kent, who is team lead, told the BBC’s Newsday.
“However this recent surge in cases has seen a significant increase in fatality rate,” Mr Kent, a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, said.
The team has clinicians and biomedical engineers to boost the staffing capacity in the country, which borders South Africa where a more contagious variant of the virus has been reported.
Eswatini also needed support in enhancing the intensive care unit capacity, which was only 29 beds currently, Mr Kent said.
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