The next target is 25,000 PCR tests a day / Photo from UNIAN

Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov says that the number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests per day in September is planned to increase to 25,000.

"When I became health minister, we did 200 tests per day... Today, there were almost 18,000 tests in the past 24 hours. Our task is to reach about 25,000 tests per day in September," he said at a briefing amid a working visit to Lviv, which was live-streamed on Facebook on August 6, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoUkraine reports another record spike in COVID-19 cases on Aug 6

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Algorithms were approved according to which testing of people with coronavirus symptoms should be carried out as quickly as possible, he added.

"Of course, it [the delay] is related to the fact that there are not enough people who can do it, there is not enough equipment," the minister said.

In his words, although the number of tests had increased significantly in the past four months, "there are indeed some problems."  "We clearly know how to solve them," Stepanov added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, there were 76,808 confirmed coronavirus cases as of the morning of August 6. Of them, 1,318 were confirmed in the past day, which became a new record daily jump.