The new version of the protocol "Provision of medical care for the treatment of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)" was signed by the Minister of Health on September 17. The protocol was developed by specialists of the Ministry and the top qualified specialists in the field of healthcare. In general, the protocol fully includes approaches to drug therapy and oxygen support for coronavirus infection treatment. This was announced at a daily briefing by Maxym Stepanov, Minister of Health of Ukraine.

"The protocol for doctors engaged in curing coronavirus disease is a tool enabling them to determine the necessary therapy and treatment approaches. I want to note that the appointment of drugs is based on the individual clinical course of a patient. The protocol should be used exclusively by healthcare professionals. I urge Ukrainians to avoid self-medicating!" said the Minister of Health.

The updated protocol, in particular, contains an expanded the scheme of glucocorticoid use, algorithms for anticoagulant therapy, supplemented approaches to antimicrobial therapy of secondary bacterial co-infection, and specified the indications for the use of the drug tocilizumab.

Among the changes are an updated diagnozing of a suspicious and probable case of COVID-19, the criteria for non-contagiousness of patients that were diagnosed as a confirmed case of COVID-19, as well as the criteria for completion of outpatient treatment (termination of self-isolation) and an updated algorithm for testing for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infection.