Ukraine sees hospitals overcrowded with COVID-19

A hospital in western Ukraine has been overwhelmed amid surging coronavirus infections, as the first shipment of vaccines arrived in the eastern European country.

"The Carpathian region is on fire," said Viktor Boyko, the chief of Kolomyya's Central District Hospital.

"Almost all medical reserves are used, every week an additional number of beds is deployed," he added.

The number of coronavirus cases in the western part of Ukraine has risen sharply since the end of a strict two-week lockdown last month.

Boyko said the hospital was sending virus samples to a lab to determine whether they were battling new COVID-19 variants.

"We think that the virus has mutated and mutated substantially," he said. "We're losing more people now."

On Tuesday, Ukraine received its first shipment of coronavirus jabs - a consignment of 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India.

Some regions in western Ukraine will be prioritized due to the high rate of infections.

Ukraine also expects to receive more vaccine doses under the COVAX distribution program, including those produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Novavax.

The country has also signed an agreement to buy 1.9 million doses of vaccine from the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech, the first deliveries of which are expected in April.

"It would be better if they brought that vaccine earlier," said Uliana Vorobeiva, a severely ill patient at the Kolomyya hospital.

"It would stop people from getting sick."