Ukraine's daily COVID-19 hospitalisations rise to record high

Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on Facebook 5,052 people had been hospitalised in the past day compared to the previous record of 4,887 people registered on March 17. Ukraine also reported 11,932 new infections in the past 24 hours and 203 coronavirus related deaths.

A record number of Ukrainians were taken to hospital with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Sunday as the country grapples with a surge in infections. Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on Facebook 5,052 people had been hospitalised in the past day compared to the previous record of 4,887 people registered on March 17.

Ukraine also reported 11,932 new infections in the past 24 hours and 203 coronavirus related deaths. The number of daily hospitalisations did not exceed 2,000 during the peak of the pandemic in late 2020 but has begun to rise in recent weeks. Ukraine registered a record daily high of 18,132 new cases and 362 coronavirus-related deaths last week.

The minister has linked the worsening of the situation to the spread of the coronavirus variant first found in Britain, which was detected in Ukraine in late February, amid a slow pace of vaccination. So far in the country of 41 million people around 197,000 people have received their first shots since the inoculation campaign began a month ago.

More than 1.64 million people have been infected and 31,954 have died since the start of the pandemic.

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