Top stories of the day –
Cabinet offers Hr 66 billion ($2.5 billion) for coronavirus recovery in new budget proposal. The fund would pay for medical equipment and support Ukrainians affected by the economic downturn provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief sanitary doctor: Ukraine can test 30,000 people weekly, but there is no need. Ukraine has the resources to ramp up its COVID-19 testing capacity to 30,000 tests per week.
Big businesses open pockets to fight COVID-19. As COVID-19 sweeps across Ukraine and the country stares down the twin barrels of a health crisis and medical supply shortages, businesses and Ukrainian citizens have stepped forward to help.
Ukraine registered 206 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours that followed the morning of April 7. There are now at least 1,668 confirmed cases in total, with 52 confirmed deaths, the health ministry reports.
Business news –
Parliament’s health committee is preparing a bill on licensing medicines to fight COVID-19. The Rada’s committee for health and medical insurance is developing a bill on the compulsory licensing of drugs that may be needed to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which would allow production of these medicines to begin at Ukrainian pharmaceutical plants, head of the committee Mykhailo Radutsky said on his Facebook page.
The country is also negotiating on the supply of medicines from India and other countries. Radutsky said that compulsory licensing is proposed for three months, Interfax reported.
The Darnitsa pharma company has purchased hydroxychloroquine and is awaiting its delivery to Ukraine, board chairman of the Darnitsa Group Dmytro Shymkiv said. The medication is used to prevent and treat malaria and rheumatoid arthritis but has recently been successfully used in treatment of some COVID-19 patients. However, it’s overall effectiveness and safety in treating COVID-19 is still being tested.
