The COVID-19 spread rate has accelerated in Ukraine in recent weeks.
Ukraine's Deputy Health Minister, Chief Medical Officer Viktor Liashko says the country's healthcare system is still coping with the increase in COVID-19 patients.
"Today we register 5,000-5,700 cases in Ukraine – there is no collapse. The healthcare system is coping with them. We say we'll cope with up to 10,000 cases ...," he told RFE/RL's Ukrainian bureau on October 17.
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"We are doing our utmost nationwide to prevent, first, the collapse of the healthcare system, and secondly, not to stop the country's economy. We understand that the introduction of a hard lockdown is already an exclusively such reserve situation when nothing else can be done," he summed up.
The COVID-19 spread rate has accelerated in Ukraine in recent weeks. The daily COVID-19 spike hit the new high with almost 6,500 cases as of October 17. The total number of confirmed cases grew to 293,641.
Meanwhile, in the past day, another 598 residents of the capital city of Kyiv tested positive for the coronavirus, including 28 healthcare workers. There were 12 fatalities, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.
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