For the oxygen needs of patients with COVID-19, some 35 oxygen producers have been involved, including 23 medical and 12 technical oxygen producers, Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko has said.
“Today, not a single patient, not a single hospital in the country is left without oxygen. Yes, in certain hospitals and regions there is increased demand for oxygen, but it is controlled and issues are resolved promptly and in a team,” he said at a briefing on Thursday.
Liashko said that Ukraine is currently at its maximum values in terms of the daily number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Thus, 47,380 patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 were hospitalized.
Currently, 480 hospitals provide medical care to patients with COVID-19, they have more than 70,000 beds for patients with COVID-19, of which more than 66,000 are with oxygen. Patients with COVID-19 or with suspected disease occupy 67% beds.
At the same time, Liashko noted that the actual occupancy of beds with oxygen by patients in need of oxygen therapy is 50%. “The situation is uneven, and 46 out of 480 hospitals [about 10%] have oxygen beds already 100% occupied, and 193 [about 40% of hospitals] have the oxygen bed occupancy at 75%. The remaining 60% of clinics are without critical load,” he said.
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.
