The results of the briefing of Deputy Health Minister, Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Lyashko for July 2. This is reported by the press service of the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health is actively working to expand the network of laboratory centers in the country. While at the end of March there were 28 laboratories in the country that tested COVID-19 patients by PCR, today there are 73 laboratories. Also earlier this week, 175 laboratories started testing by ELISA method. 228 thousand such tests have already been carried out.
Laboratory centers of the Ministry of Health have signed contracts for the supply of 23 amplification devices worth more than UAH 16 million, 10 stations for automatic RNA isolation worth UAH 8 million, test systems worth UAH 27 million, reagents for RNA isolation worth UAH 14 million, and kits for biological material sampling worth UAH 25 million. This will speed up testing and reduce the burden on laboratory workers.
Laboratory workers and epidemiologists who work in coronavirus disease hotspots have already been paid wage supplements totaling UAH 95 million.
Ukraine has significantly increased the number of PCR tests. If at the beginning of April (from April 6 to April 12) domestic laboratories conducted 16,652 tests per week, then during the past week (from June 22 to June 28) 78,501 tests were performed. The number of tests will be increased in the future.
To improve the quality and efficiency of medical care during the epidemic, hospitals were supplied with 1,118 artificial ventilation machines, 1,742 patient monitors, 917 oxygen generators, 172 mobile X-ray machines, and 106 gas composition analyzers. The work on modernization of hospitals continues.
Now, 23,535 beds are ready to accommodate patients with coronavirus infection in the first wave hospitals, of which 3943 (16%) are occupied. Intensive care units have 1919 beds, of which 419 (22%) are occupied by patients. As of today, 94 patients are connected to ventilators, i.e. 3.7% out of 2400 ventilators are used.
In connection with the increase in the incidence of COVID-19, work has begun to attract hospitals of the so-called “second wave” to receive patients. Now, 10,449 beds have been prepared in such medical institutions, of which 946 are in intensive care units. The hospitals of the second wave already have 542 patients with coronavirus disease, 64 of them in intensive care units. We are talking primarily about Volyn and Transcarpathian regions, where the epidemic situation is the most tense.
According to the operational information of the health departments of regional state administrations, medical institutions have a total of 1.5 million pieces of insulating gowns and bioprotection suits, more than 8 million pieces of medical masks, 394 thousand pieces of protective goggles/shields, 1.3 million pieces of respirators of protection class not lower than FFP2. Procurement is ongoing.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, the Ministry of Health has joined humanitarian deliveries of medical equipment and PPE. Thanks to these supplies, domestic hospitals received more than 1.3 million respirators, more than 300,000 protective suits, more than 200,000 protective goggles, almost 3 million medical masks and the like.
The weekly average proportion of healthcare workers to total coronavirus infection decreased from 20% in early April to 9.7% as of last week.
As part of the strategic approach to curbing the spread of coronavirus as a hospital-acquired infection, the expert community is now discussing the draft Concept of a nationwide program to counteract healthcare-associated infectious diseases. Its main goal is to invest in infectious disease departments of hospitals for comprehensive construction of an infection control system.
The Ministry of Health has provided recommendations to the Ministry of Education on the next stages of the UPE in terms of compliance with sanitary and hygienic norms due to the hot weather. In particular, it concerns air conditioning, ventilation of classrooms and the like. As for the previous two stages of testing, they were held in accordance with the recommendations of the Ministry of Health.
The Deputy Minister called for immunization against vaccine-preventable infections to prevent outbreaks: adults – every 10 years against diphtheria and tetanus, children – against 10 vaccine-preventable infections.
As we reported earlier, the Government at a meeting on July 1 supported the draft law on amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, which provides for the establishment of fines for failure to comply with the mask regime. In particular, according to the document, the fine for such violations for individuals will be UAH 170-255, for legal entities (catering, sports, retail establishments, etc.) – from UAH 3,400 to 5,100.
