President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy assures that there are no problems with money in the fund of struggle against coronavirus and its consequences. Hospitals are now being prepared for the increase in the number of patients with severe COVID-19 course.
"There are no problems with money," the President said during a conversation with media representatives within a working trip to the Zhytomyr region.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy focused on the growing number of coronavirus infections and the rapid filling of hospitals with patients in need of hospitalization.
"There are big problems with the number of beds, I mean fast filling of beds… But I still believe that it will not be as big as it was, for example, in most European countries," the President said.
He noted that the consequences of people's reckless attitude to the COVID-19 epidemic "will be corrected by the whole country".
"Despite this, we are preparing many hospitals due to the increase in the number of patients - those who are already being delivered to the hospitals. Hospitals are being expanded and re-equipped. There are no problems with technical means, oxygen, ventilators. I don't want to say that there is enough for everyone, but at least we are ready," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
According to the Head of State, funds were redirected from many other budget programs to fill the COVID fund. This was done in order to have the resources to fight the epidemic, the scale of which was initially difficult to predict. However, the government did not rule out that later part of these funds will go to other budget programs. In particular, these are important infrastructure projects.
"A lot of money was spent on roads that lead to hub hospitals, ER departments or schools, and that needs to be done. In any case, it is all connected," the President said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the need for funding to combat the pandemic exists, but it is controlled.
"The most important thing we have spent money on is that we spend billions from the COVID fund every month from the very beginning to support people: pensioners, people who do not receive wages. State-owned enterprises during COVID-19 (epidemic - ed.) also receive wages, miners receive wages when now almost everything is stopped in the world," the Head of State added.
