Inside the Covid unit: crisis threatens to overwhelm PNG's biggest hospital

Exhausted doctors warn sceptical patients that Covid is real as Port Moresby general reaches capacity

The emergency department of the largest hospital in the capital of Papua New Guinea is hot, stuffy and full. People sit lined up outside the front counter, waiting to be seen.

It has been divided into two sections: the front continues to operate as a traditional emergency room, while the back is now a Covid-19 isolation ward, treating the most serious cases of the virus.