Myanmar COVID-19 outbreak hits health system shattered after coup

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients receive treatment at the hospital in Cikha, Myanmar, May 28, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

(Reuters) - Breathless, fevered and without the extra oxygen that could help keep them alive, the new coronavirus patients at a hospital near Myanmar's border with India highlight the threat to a health system near collapse since February's coup.

To help her tend the seven COVID-19 patients at Cikha hospital, day and night, chief nurse Lun Za En has a lab technician and a pharmacist's assistant.