By September of this year, Ukraine will double the number of testing for COVID-19 compared to current indicators due to the expanding of the capacities of domestic laboratories.

Minister of Health of Ukraine Maxym Stepanov stressed at a daily briefing on July 17.

“We want to increase twofold the number of tests. I have set a task to reach such figures in September,” he explained.

Currently, 13-14 thousand PCR testing are performed in the country per day, while at the beginning of April this year this figure was 200-250 tests. Maxym Stepanov noted that in recent months the capacity of laboratory centers has been significantly enhanced due to equipment upgrading.

“In order to increase the capacity of laboratory centers, it was necessary to purchase equipment that was lacking. Until March of this year, the last purchase of laboratory equipment was carried out back in 2009. We have updated the equipment of all laboratory centers. We keep up and continue purchases,” the Minister emphasized.

According to him, in addition to the purchase of laboratory equipment, an important issue that needed to be addressed was staffing the centers.

“In recent months, we have been actively dealing with such problems as personnel. These are people who work seven days a week. You can see testing never stops for a day. I want to express my gratitude to them that they have been working in such a regime for several months now,” the Minister emphasized.