Reports of Covid patients leaping from Ukrainian hospital windows in tragic suicide bids as health system ‘on brink of collapse’
A woman with suspected coronavirus has died after jumping out of a window at a hospital in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporozhe, local media reported.
The patient, said to be a 56-year old with a history of mental illness, was reportedly attending a doctor’s appointment on the fourth floor of the institution, but never entered the office. Disturbing pictures from the scene appear to show a body covered by a sheet near the walls of the hospital.
In more tragic news from the country, Ukrainian media reported earlier that a woman who had recently given birth similarly leapt from a hospital window after having been diagnosed with coronavirus. This incident also occurred in the Zaporozhe region, but the hospital claims she survived the fall and was put under the care of psychiatrists.
Also on rt.com Ukraine’s health chief warns country's medical infrastructure is ‘close to disaster’ as Covid-19 lockdown threshold approachesThe influential Ukrainian news site Korrespondent also reports that two coronavirus patients at different hospitals in the capital, Kiev, killed themselves by jumping from windows, only a day apart from each other.
Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Minister for Health Maxim Stepanov warned that the country’s health system, which has faced decades of underinvestment, was “close to disaster” after a rise in Covid-19 cases. Only two weeks later, Stepanov himself tested positive for the virus and was forced to isolate.
Europe’s poorest country recorded a record number of confirmed infections on Thursday, with close to 15,000 Ukrainians being diagnosed with Covid-19. However, concerns over a lack of testing mean that the true figure may be far higher.
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