(AP) — Coronavirus infections in Ukraine began surging in late summer, and the ripples are hitting towns like Stebnyk in the western part of the country. Dr. Natalia Stetsik, the chief doctor at the only hospital in the town of 20,000 people, is watching the rise with alarm and anguish. She says the hospital is “catastrophically short of doctors.” It is supposed to hold 100 patients but is treating 106 patients with COVID-19. Ukraine imposed a tight lockdown in March, slowing the number of cases, but they started rising again and the government closed the borders at the end of August. Positive tests reached a new peak of 4,661 a day last weekend.
