Fresh Cases of Coronavirus Reenter Ukrain, Health Officials on Stress

A large chunk of Ukrainians, who were on short-term occupations in Europe, returned their respective home amid the pandemic. Shockingly, sections of them brought the virus back.

As COVID-19 patients flood into the struggling hospitals, some doctors and nurses must buy their own protective gear or use improvised equipment. Many of them are getting sick: medical workers account for about a fifth of all coronavirus cases in Ukraine.

Mykola Sharakhlitsky, an anesthesiologist at Chernivtsi’s main hospital said, “We are experiencing a shortage of medical equipment and protective gear, and we all get infected as a result”.

There is not a hospital-grade ventilator for the 250 patients in the facility in Chernivtsi, a city of 266,000 people. “I don’t believe that a single hospital in Ukraine has all it needs”, the ICU Chief, Kostyantyn Dronyk, said.

This crisis could not have struck at a worse time for Ukraine. The country's corruption-ridden economy has been drained by six years of war with Russia-backed separatists in the east, and the year-old administration of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy inherited health care reforms begun by his predecessor that are still rolling out. The reforms have slashed government subsidies, leaving hospital workers underpaid and poorly equipped.