Ukraine’s overburdened doctors in desperate virus fight

CHERNIVTSI, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s doctors are struggling against the coronavirus in deplorable conditions. They have substandard equipment that breaks down frequently, they lack drugs to treat patients and they are paid low wages. A hospital in the city of Chernivtsi in western Ukraine doesn’t have a centralized oxygen supply system that is standard for modern clinics. Its oxygen supply system is in just one room, forcing nurses to manually refill bags they call “oxygen pillows” and carry them to patients elsewhere. A corruption-plagued economy, weakened by a war with Russia-backed separatists the east, brought on the meltdown of Ukraine’s health care system, which was quickly overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.