ST. PETERSBURG. June 16 (Interfax) - Almost 100 people have been removed from medical facilities in flooded areas since the destruction of Kakhovka Hydropower Plant (HPP) in the Kherson region; the region's population is now being vaccinated against infectious diseases, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.
"We evacuated 95 people from medical [facilities] from the flooded territories; there is a sufficient available bed capacity: 207 hospital beds which we can move patients to, including a further 130 reserve beds which we can use," Murashko told journalists on Friday.
The response effort involves eight paramedic teams, and another 29 are on standby, he said.
"The Federal Center of Disaster Medicine has seconded 28 specialists. Additionally, the FMBA [Federal Biomedical Agency] dispatched its specialists, [and] Rospotrebnadzor [Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing] is involved, so there is a big team of specialists there. Medical work has been organized at temporary accommodation centers," Murashko said.
In addition, the region's population is now being vaccinated, with some of the vaccines provided by the Disaster Medicine Center, the minister said. Further supplies will be funded through the federal budget, and the regional government is also paying for them, he said.
The region has vaccines against Hepatitis A, dysentery and typhoid, he said. Additional amounts of medications needed for vaccination are currently being purchased.
Valves and other surface infrastructure elements of the Kakhovka HPP were destroyed in the early hours of June 6, causing an uncontrolled discharge of the Dnieper's water downstream from the Kakhovka reservoir in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Water levels rose to 12 meters in riverside communities of the Kherson region. Seven thousand residents of three city districts - Novaya Kakhovka, Alyoshki and Golaya Pristan - had to be evacuated.