President: 80% of COVID-19 hospital beds must be provided with oxygen

At a conference call on October 26, the President noted that the provision of beds with oxygen by 80% must be done as soon as possible, the President’s press service informs.

The Head of State asked to monitor this process and inquired about the preparations for the possible deployment of beds in non-medical institutions in Kyiv, Odesa and Donetsk region.

In turn, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the Government had instructed the heads of regional state administrations to provide 80% of hospital beds with oxygen in the near future.

The PM also added that the supply of oxygen in hospitals in Kherson region was at the level of 85%, in Kirovohrad, Zakarpattia, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava, Zhytomyr, and Vinnytsia regions - 50%.

He noted that 571 million hryvnias had already been allocated for the purchase of oxygen for hospitals.

"We have money, and all procurement procedures have been simplified," he said.

More than 16,000 beds are now equipped with oxygen, it is 6,800 more than in September, the President’s Office notes.

Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov said that the needs were being verified, the Ministry of Health was gathering proposals from the regions, in particular on the materials and equipment needed, the number of doctors, the required funds for the salaries and for the functioning of such facilities.

The Minister also reported that routes for transfer of patients with urgent cases to the institutes of the National Academy of Medical Sciences and Ukrzaliznytsia hospitals in Kharkiv, which are additionally funded to assist in the treatment of patients with COVID-19, were being worked out.

The Minister of Health also said that additional 14 hospitals had started treating patients with coronavirus.

As of October 26, Ukraine has reported 348,924 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 5,426 cases recorded over the past day.

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