Current Time reporters asked doctors and medics who have been battling COVID-19 in different countries to share their advice and wishes for others in the new year. They hoped for an end to the pandemic -- and for patience and strength to face new challenges.
Russians have been telling Current Time about their experiences with the new Sputnik-V COVID-19 vaccine after the country began a mass vaccination program. President Vladimir Putin said on December 2 that 2 million doses of the Russian-made vaccine would be made available within days.
Some Russian medical professionals have alleged that various means are being applied to force them to take a Russian-made vaccine against COVID-19 that has not completed mass clinical trials. Russia began a mass rollout of its Sputnik-V vaccine this week.
Valery Melnikov was known in Russia for the huge New Year's cards he created on the ice and snow of a frozen river in the country's Far East. After he died in October at the age of 72 after contracting COVID-19, residents of his home region of Amur decided to continue the tradition he started.
The situation in many Ukrainian hospitals is critical, doctors say, after a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the country. There's a shortage of beds, intensive-care units are overcrowded, and many seriously ill patients have to wait for ventilators.
The video is shocking: a 90-year-old grandmother with COVID-19 is turned away from a Russian hospital because there are no beds left. As the scale of Russia's health crisis becomes apparent, authorities in one region reacted by banning mobile phones.
COVID-19 cases are growing fast in Russia and the situation is becoming dire in some regions. The country reported a record 18,283 new cases on October 30. There are shortages of medical supplies and personnel in a number of cities. And some morgues are full of bodies, with not enough pathologists to handle the dead.
Following a Current Time report, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov earlier this month visited an ambulance station outside of Kyiv that, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, only has one dilapidated, rusty ambulance to respond to emergency calls. This video shows the results.
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