At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health increased the number of beds for hospitalization of patients with coronavirus disease by 4.5 times. This was stated by the Minister of Health Maxym Stepanov during a daily online briefing.

"The number of beds allocated for the treatment of COVID-19 is currently 53,445. For example: at the beginning of the epidemic in Ukraine, there were only 12,704 "conditional" beds for the treatment of coronavirus disease. That is, we increased their number by almost 4.5 times," said the Minister of Health.

It is currently estimated that the number of equipped hospital beds will be increased to about 90,000 around the country.

"This makes up 50% of all hospital beds in the country that can be utilized for the treatment of patients with coronavirus disease. At the same time, 27,792 patients are in hospitals this morning. As a result, bed occupancy makes up 52% in the country as a whole," said the Minister of Health.

Meanwhile, the process of increasing the number of oxygen beds continues. Today in Ukraine there are 25,996 - with a centralized oxygen supply system or an oxygen concentrator. There are currently 12,168 beds available. But in some regions of Ukraine, the situation with this indicator is unfavorable.

"There are regions where the situation with the number of free beds with oxygen is quite tense. It is a city of Kyiv, Cherkasy and Kharkiv regions. At the same time, we have a clear understanding of the increase in oxygen beds, in particular with local authorities. After all, it is the local government whose property is the hospitals that are currently engaged in the treatment of patients with COVID-19," said Maxym Stepanov.

It should be noted that earlier Maxym Stepanov declared that the domestic medical system wouldn’t be able to sustain the load in case the country fixes for a certain period up to 30,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day.