Liashko to urgently leave for Ivano-Frankivsk region due to COVID-19 outbreak – meeting with Zelensky

KYIV. Feb 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – In the hospitals that treat patients infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ivano-Frankivsk region, about 73% of beds are already occupied, and the number of active patients exceeds Kyiv's indicators, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said during a conference call with the President of Ukraine on Tuesday.

According to the presidential press service, Shmyhal said that due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the region, a meeting of the local commission on environmental safety, manmade disaster and emergency response is expected tonight.

Chief State Sanitary Doctor, Deputy Minister of Health Viktor Liashko is urgently leaving for the region.

It is noted that in some settlements of Prykarpattia, the occupancy rate in hospitals for COVID-19 patients exceeds 90%.

"We need to carefully understand the situation, because due to the snow, it is especially difficult to deliver patients by ambulances to other areas where there are free spaces, it is necessary to consider the option of deploying additional beds in the area. Remember that the lives of patients are first of all important," President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said.

At the same time, the Prime Minister said the situation with the spread of COVID-19 in Ukraine is generally stabilizing.

Thus, according to him, last week the country continued to see a downward trend in the number of active patients, deaths, hospitalized patients and occupied beds in COVID-19 hospitals.