Ukraine is actively adding beds with oxygen for patients with COVID-19, it can allocate up to 15,000 more beds, head of the Center for Health Economics of the Kyiv School of Economics Yuriy Hanychenko said at a weekly online briefing.
“Ukraine has not yet allocated all the beds. If we compare with the spring wave, then Ukraine is able to allocate another quarter of the beds to those that have already been allocated, this is about 15,000 beds,” Hanychenko said.
He said that in general, the situation with the load on the healthcare system is not critical at the moment, however, in some regions of Ukraine, the occupation of beds with oxygen has reached a critical level.
“We are not talking about the maximum load on the entire health care system, but, as we know, in some regions the situation in terms of the percentage of bed occupancy is nearly critical,” Hanychenko said.
More than 70% of beds allocated for patients with COVID-19 are provided with oxygen today in Ukraine, Deputy Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko said.
“Today, more than 70% of all beds allocated for COVID-19 are provided with oxygen. Now 55-60% of those hospitalized need oxygen treatment,” Liashko wrote on his Facebook page.
He said that 64,349 beds have been redesigned in hospitals to provide medical care for people with COVID-19, of which 44,436 are oxygen beds, which is almost 70% of all allocated beds.
“Today in hospitals we have 29,487 free beds with oxygen. On average, 55-60% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 need oxygen support,” he said.
The occupancy of beds by patients with COVID-19 in Ukraine as of Monday morning is 52%, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday.
“Some 53,445 beds have already been introduced for the treatment of patients with COVID-19, of which 27,792 beds are occupied by patients. The occupancy of beds is 52%. We continue to introduce beds, we can increase the maximum to almost 90,000 (50% of all beds),” he said.
“Some 25.996 beds are provided with oxygen. In general, 12,168 beds are provided with oxygen throughout the country. But in some regions there is a tense situation – this is Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Kharkiv regions,” the minister added.
