Ukraine's Deputy Health Minister, Chief Medical Officer Viktor Liashko says the ministry is preparing to deploy a makeshift hospital at the Palace of Sports in the capital city of Kyiv.
He made the comment during an interview with the Segodnya newspaper on November 2.
Read alsoKyiv mayor reports 507 new daily COVID-19 cases, nine fatalities as of Nov 2"Yes, there are already preliminary estimates, which are being finalized. We have defined the needs for equipment, tasked State Enterprise 'Medical Procurement of Ukraine' to analyze prices, drafted a resolution to allocate funds for this and start deploying the hospital in the Palace of Sports," he said.
According Liashko, makeshift hospitals should be deployed in adapted premises with heating, ventilation, and sanitary conditions.
"That is, these are large areas where beds are additionally installed to ensure a large block system, supply of oxygen to the beds, provide intensive care units, and rooms for medical staff," he said.
Liashko added that now there is a lack of additional equipment and beds for such large areas, but the key issue is medical staff shortages.
"At this particular moment – all this is unavailable. But we know how much equipment we need, according to the lists; we know how much equipment is on the market, how much to buy and supply. But is the medical personnel rather than the equipment. With the increasing number of beds, the problem of the number of healthcare staff will not be solved by itself, because becoming a healthcare worker takes years," he said.
Coronavirus in Ukraine: Latest developments
- Ukraine said 6,754 new active COVID-19 cases had been confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours as of November 2, 2020.
- The total number of confirmed cases grew to 402,194 as of November 2, 2020.
- As many as 163,768 patients, including 2,327 in the past day, have recovered.
- The death toll has hit 7,375 with 69 fatalities recorded in the past day.
