Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov says makeshift hospitals for COVID-19 patients will be deployed in three Ukrainian cities, namely Kyiv, Odesa, and Kramatorsk (Donetsk region).
Read alsoCabinet set to introduce weekend quarantine: Minister explains new rulesHe made the comment during the Pravo na Vladu ("Right to Power") talk show on November 5, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
According to Stepanov, more than half of hospitals for COVID-19 patients had been loaded as of Thursday morning, and the number of such patients would be growing.
"As of this morning, there were 27,500 people in hospitals. This figure has grown by 3.5 times since the beginning of September. Today, we have 52,000 beds ready. And we are urgently increasing their number. I think it will grow by another 20,000 beds. This is our healthcare system's maximum theoretical capacity, so that the increase should not be due to non-provision of medical care to other patients. In addition, I think we will be deploying makeshift hospitals in our cities," he said.
The minister also announced that the so-called "weekend quarantine" might be introduced across the country as early as the following week.
Coronavirus in Ukraine: Latest developments
Ukraine said 9,721 new active COVID-19 cases had been confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours as of November 6, 2020.
The total number of confirmed cases grew to 440,188 as of November 6, 2020.
As many as 195,544 patients, including 10,762 in the past day, have recovered.
The death toll has hit 8,125 with 201 fatalities recorded in the past day.
The government reported 236,519 active cases as of November 6. In total, there have been 517,028 reports on suspected COVID-19 since the beginning of 2020.
In total, 3,521,175 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests have been carried out since the outbreak.
