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: The total number of new coronavirus cases in Kyiv has reached 28,957. There are new 445 infections overnight, 17 more fatalities and 57 recoveries.
The latest cases include 252 women (18-89 years old), 159 men (18-92 years old) and 34 children. There are 16 more confirmed cases among medical staff. 56 patients were hospitalised in the past 24 hours.
As of today, the fatality count has reached 535 in Kyiv, the number of recoveries has risen to 10,286.
Desniansky district has the highest number of new cases, 106.
Unfortunately, the coronavirus hospitalisation rate remains still high. There are 1,797 such inpatients, including 33 kids. 405 of them are very ill, 571 are under oxygen therapy and 19 on ventilators. Another 143 people are admitted to hospitals while awaiting their test results. There are also 648 pneumonia-related hospitalisations.
We are doing everything we can to make the health care available to absolutely all coronavirus infected patients. We are further expanding the bed capacity and sending more funds to local hospitals. Currently, there are almost 2,800 beds in 22 municipal hospitals available for COVID-19 patients in Kyiv. But anytime we can face the bed shortage since hospital admissions are rising fast.
Still, the state healthcare capacity, which includes 11,000 beds and qualified staff, is unavailable for infected Kyivans. This is a hardly professional and unacceptable attitude of the national government which recommends restrictions and let the local governments bear the heaviest burden when it comes to the pandemic. Stadiums converted into hospitals are hardly better than fully equipped and appropriately staffed medical facilities!
Now the situation in schools which will break from October 21.
610 school students and 412 teachers are active coronavirus cases so far in Kyiv. Five schools are closed due to infections among staff. 594 classes in 186 schools with COVID-19 positive kids are self-isolating. Also, four kindergartens across Kyiv remain under quarantine. 78 nursery groups in 68 kindergartens are temporarily closed due to the detected infections. Attendance rate is over 57%.
A few words about hospital staffing.
Unfortunately, over the last nine months over 7,000 municipal healthcare workers have quit, almost half of them are support staffers.
Nine per cent of them have retired. But still, there are many medics who left because of fear for their own safety amid the pandemic.
There are almost 7,500 empty medical vacancies in municipal hospitals. Many newly graduated physicians and nurses refuse to work for municipal healthcare facilities even despite the constant effort of the city authority to improve their working conditions. For instance, over the nine months the municipality has set aside almost ₴985 million for extra payments for the Kyiv healthcare workers.
Thank you and please, remember that the virus gets closer. Let us protect ourselves. Please, act responsibly and respect the healthcare rules.