Ukraine has overcome the third wave of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said.
“Finally, I can state that we have overcome the third wave of the pandemic. From tomorrow, there will not be a single region with a ‘red’ level of epidemic danger in Ukraine,” he said on his Facebook page.
Stepanov said that, as planned, on Friday there will be a meeting of the State Commission on Environmental Safety, Manmade Disaster and Emergency Response, which can cancel the “red” level of epidemic danger in Sumy region.
The minister said that the third wave of COVID-19 claimed more lives compared to the first two, and during this period the healthcare system worked with tension, there was not enough oxygen in medical institutions.
“The late March and the early April were the hardest. The capacities at Lviv Chemical Plant [supplying medical institutions with oxygen] were overloaded and at some point some of the production capacities stopped. However, we managed to restore them overnight. We did not leave a single person without oxygen. For example, one of the city hospitals in Kyiv, before the pandemic, needed 3 tonnes of oxygen per month, and during the third wave – 5.5 tonnes per day,” he said.
According to Stepanov, at the peak of the epidemic, there were 44,000 patients in hospitals on oxygen therapy; while a year earlier there were 3,500 beds with oxygen in Ukraine.
At the same time, the minister recalled the need for further compliance with anti-epidemic measures.
“No ‘barbecue’ costs life and health. Therefore, take care of yourself, because the virus is just waiting for you to take off the mask,” the minister said.
