Ukraine COVID cases to exceed 5,000 daily, Stepanov says

Ukraine’s new infections from the COVID-19 disease
will set a daily record exceeding 5,000 cases by the end of the week, Health Minister
Maksym Stepanov told a press briefing on Oct. 5. The most tense situation is
with hospital occupancy, he said. “We have almost 37,000 beds, of which 30,000
are already active. The rest are on reserve. Today, 16,745 patients are
hospitalized, either with a confirmed diagnosis or a suspicion. Now, with the
current amount of those falling ill, that is more than 4,000 (daily), we have a
tense situation, but it’s not critical,” he said. The total number of hospital
beds for COVID patients can reach 50,000, after which doctors will have to
choose whom to offer immediate care, he said. The cost of treating a single
patient is at least USD 1,500 a month, he said.

The same evening, Stepanov told a television talk show
that he will propose the return to a severe national quarantine if the COVID
hospital occupancy rate exceeds 60%, abandoning the current adaptive quarantine
model per region. At the same time, a severe quarantine wouldn’t involve a full
lockdown, he said. Meanwhile, 22 MPs are on sick leave owing to COVID-19,
Parliamentary Speaker Dmytro Razumkov told television on Oct. 6. The Rada is
continuing its work in committees online, he said. A total number of 75 Rada
workers were infected as of Oct. 5, the dt.ua news site reported.

New infections of the COVID-19 disease caused by the
coronavirus set a daily record of 4,753 cases on Oct. 6, the Health Ministry
reported this morning. That’s compared to 4,348 on Oct. 5 and 3,774 on Oct. 4.
A new daily record was also set on Oct. 6 of 2,569 recoveries, compared to
2,149 on Oct. 5 and 1,145 on Oct. 4. A total of 77 people died on Oct. 6,
compared to 90 on Oct. 5 and 33 on Oct. 4.

Zenon Zawada: Those most affected by COVID in recent days are the city of Kharkiv,
where infections continue to rise at the highest rate, and the residents of
Kyiv, who were unable to gain parliament’s approval of legislation reforming
the city’s governing bodies and bureaucracy. It’s hard to predict how the state
officials will react once daily infections exceed 5,000 (and hospital occupancy
exceeds 60%), but it’s safe to say that they will try to avoid any severe
lockdown. Even if severe measures are adopted at the national level (which we
doubt), local officials have shown they will resist them. Nonetheless, a risky
and uncertain COVID situation in Ukraine is currently developing.