KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine registered a record 6,410 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the national security council said on Saturday, up from a previous record of 5,992 reported on Friday.
The council said 109 patients had died in the past 24 hours, the highest daily toll since the start of the pandemic.
The country’s Health Minister Maksym Stepanov told a televised briefing on Saturday that the daily number of people admitted to hospital had jumped to 1,089 from 800-900 in previous days.
He said the ministry was considering inviting medical graduates to help doctors in COVID hospitals, where about 23,000 beds were already occupied.
“We have a rather tense situation with the number of people who are hospitalised … and it is clear that we are increasing the workload on our doctors,” said Stepanov.
Last week the government decided to open more hospitals to accept patients with the novel coronavirus infection [L8N2H02OL].
A total of 293,641 cases had been registered in Ukraine as of Oct. 17, with 5,517 deaths.
The daily tally spiked above 5,000 in October, prompting the government to extend lockdown measures until the end of 2020.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
