Kyiv Mayor’s Coronavirus Update – April 7, 2021
07.04.2021
The mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko held a briefing providing an update on the coronavirus situation in Ukraine’s capital and the measures the city is taking to respond.
Klitschko: Daily new coronavirus cases and hospitalisations are trending upwards in Kyiv. There are new 1,417 Covid-19 cases in Kyiv in the past 24 hours, totalling 170,517. There are 45 more fatalities, bringing the death toll to 3,701. 476 more patients recovered to raise the total number of recoveries to 108,732.
The latest cases are 819 women (18-91 years old), 528 men (18-95 years old) and 70 children. Also, there are 45 healthcare workers among new infections.
In the past 24 hours 183 patients were hospitalised with a confirmed illness and 489 with suspected coronavirus infection, totalling 672.
Dniprovsky district leads with 256 new cases, followed by Podil with 230 new infections.
The number of hospital admissions of patients with severe symptoms stays steadily high. Now coronavirus hospitals in Kyiv operate at over 77 per cent capacity. Currently, there are 4,608 Covid-positive patients, including 46 children. 3,222 in-patients are seriously ill, 3,878 patients require oxygen therapy and 69 invasive ventilation.
Some municipal coronavirus hospitals are already running above their capacity. For instance, yesterday I visited the city hospital No.3 which is 110 per cent full and still has to add more beds to handle the patient overflow.
Coronavirus beds are available now also in maternity clinics and children’s hospitals. Tuberculosis hospital is preparing the Covid-19 unit for new admissions, repairing the oxygen flow system and seeking the staff. The city hospital for war veterans began to admit all non-Covid patients.
Hospitals are struggling to meet the surge of patients (up to 700 patients daily) and the municipality does everything possible to prevent their collapse. We have single-handedly deployed 6,200 coronavirus beds and continue to make them available everywhere we can. So far about 6,500 beds can admit Covid patients in Kyiv, and these include beds in municipal hospitals and facilities attached to a specific ministry.
These days only three Ukrzaliznytsia hospitals began admitting the infected Kyivans though at a very reduced in-patient capacity, something they should have done back in October. But still, the national healthcare facilities with a total capacity of 10,000 beds remains unavailable for the infected residents of Kyiv. The Academy of Medical Science has provided about 100 beds out of the promised 500. Those beds are too few to handle an increase in coronavirus numbers. Every bed now can make a difference. This is why I am once again calling the government, the Health Ministry and the Academy of Medical Science to ensure that Kyiv-based healthcare capacities are made available to the Kyivans. Because now it looks as if they are choosing to ignore the grimness of the situation and playing politics with people’s lives.
The testing capacity for Covid-19 in Kyiv remains the highest in Ukraine and exceeds 517 tests performed per 100,000 population. We have made the testing procedure more available. Tests are being performed at 71 testing collection centres in municipal-run health facilities and available at no out-of-pocket cost if done by appointment of a family doctor. A full list of those centres is available on the city administration site. The mobile response brigades continue to collect samples of the people with symptoms at home. About 2,700 disabled Kyivans and the elderly population tested for the infection at home in the past week.
Along with other regions, Kyiv is running its Covid-19 inoculation programme with the Covishield vaccine provided by the Health Ministry. Ukraine’s capital city received 42,600 vaccine doses and now leads in vaccination rate compared to other Ukrainian cities. Vaccination is voluntary. 27,158 people have already received their first shot. They are mainly medical professionals, Kyivans of the 80-plus age group, the ATO combatants, the essential services employees and other priority recipients.
As you may know, there is a global shortage of coronavirus vaccines. The city government is іntеnsеlу nеgоtіаtіng a separate vaccine deal with some drug companies. It is no easy task for a municipality to buy the vaccine individually because it is available mainly through pre-order by the governments. Still, we will continue the effort to secure enough Covid-19 vaccines to protect at least the frontline medical workers and the most vulnerable populations.
The Kyiv authority stays committed to support the municipal medical workers to the best of its ability, especially because as of last April they are getting paid by the National Health Service. About ₴1,5 billion have been set aside for this purpose. Over 27,700 medical professionals from 84 municipal health facilities are among those eligible for monthly payments. Doctors earn an additional ₴5,000 per month, nurses and attendants ₴4,000 and ₴2,000 respectively. Frontline medics are at a high risk to get infected and continue to working tirelessly to save people.
Now I want also to answer the criticism about the public transport travel permits. The City Transport Department has issued about 500,000 of them and distributed them among the essential public services workers. It is enough to ensure the essential workers can travel to and from work. This Monday buses, trolleybuses and trams carried about 200,000 passengers with travel permits. The Metro delivered almost 152,000 such rides on the same day. Tuesday’s metro ridership grew to 210,500 and 300,000 essential workers used the land public transport in Kyiv.
I want to underline that the service frequencies or service hours of public transport are not limited so far. Should the situation change we are ready to adjust public transport operation according to the demand.