LVIV, Ukraine (AP) – A medical college in western Ukraine has been converted into a temporary hospital as the coronavirus floods the country in Eastern Europe.
The foyer of the college in the city of Lviv has 50 beds for COVID-19 patients, and 300 more are placed in lecture halls and auditoriums to accommodate the abundance of people seeking care in a packed emergency hospital nearby.
The head of the therapy department of the hospital, Marta Sayko, said that the university space has doubled the capacity of the treatment. She hopes that a broad closure ordered on Friday will reduce the burden on the Ukrainian health care system.
“As the number of cases increases now, more patients come into a serious condition with signs of respiratory failure,” Sayko said.
The government’s extensive closure closed schools, gyms and entertainment venues and banned table service at restaurants until 25 January. Ukraine, with 42 million inhabitants, has reported more than 1.1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and nearly 20,000 deaths in the pandemic. .
Many medical workers have criticized the government for ordering the exclusion only after the Christmas and New Year holidays, rather than angering the public.
“We have seen large-scale New Year’s festivals in almost every city,” said Borys Ribun, head of the regional pathology bureau in Lviv. “I think there will be consequences. We’ll see them in a week or two. ‘
A conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, now in its seventh year, has further drained the country’s corruption-ravaged economy. Controversial reforms that have reduced government subsidies have weakened the country’s health care system, leaving hospital workers underpaid and poorly equipped.
In the town of Rudky near Lviv, most local doctors have reached retirement age.
“The exodus of specialists going abroad poses a problem for small hospitals like ours,” said Roman Pukalo, chief physician at Rudky Hospital. ‘Salaries do not meet the basic human needs. And our material basis is, to say the least, outdated. We do not have normal diagnostic equipment. ”
Some COVID-19 patients who are in a serious condition in the dilapidated hospital lie next to others who are recovering.
Oleksandra Kaldarar shares a room with her husband, Mykhailo, and their son, who are both on fans.
“Measures should have been stricter so that people would have been more protected,” she said.
Medical workers say a national vaccination process expected to begin in March offers the best chance of improving the country’s dire situation.
“We first hope for the vaccination. Then it is understanding people, isolation, caring for each other, washing hands, wearing masks in the right way, not under the nose, not on the chin, limiting social contact and avoiding crowds, ”said Zoryana Mashtaler, an anesthetist of Lviv, said. ‘However, we understand that people are people, and that some unfortunately do not follow the rules. It is what it is.”
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Yuras Karmanau contributed to this report from Kiev, Ukraine.
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