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On that day, hospital staff forced me into a room, instructing me to take off my clothes so they could put me in a straitjacket and inject an antipsychotic medication into my upper thigh.

The treatment was also safe, with a less than one percent mortality risk in these very sick patients and, on average, a one day hospital stay.

That day hospital staff were treating children, pregnant women and three newborn babies as well as soldiers and civilians injured in fierce fighting in the region, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

However, even as infection rates remain near record levels above 20,000 a day, hospital admissions and deaths have stabilised at levels below those seen a year ago.

Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that as cases increased by about 60 percent over the past week, to around 240,000 each day, hospital admissions and deaths had remained “comparatively low,” hinting at a less deadly wave of the virus.