Ukraine has registered 15,850 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. on March 19. The total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic is approaching 1.52 million.
There are currently 241,629 active cases in Ukraine.
In the past 24 hours, 4,592 COVID-19 patients have recovered and 262 have died. Over 1.2 million people have recovered from COVID-19 and 29,515 have died since the pandemic hit Ukraine.
In the past 24 hours, 4,444 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19.
Ukrainian laboratories have carried out 53,379 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, 21,241 antibody tests and 40,654 rapid antigen tests in the past day. Over 7.5 million PCR tests have been conducted in Ukraine since the start of the pandemic.
Ukraine’s daily COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries from Feb 1, 2021 to March 18, 2021. All data was released by the Ministry of Health.
The largest numbers of new cases have been recorded in the city of Kyiv (1,210), Lviv Oblast (1,140), Kyiv Oblast (1,134), Kharkiv Oblast (1,085), and Vinnytsia Oblast (948).
Starting March 20, Kyiv will introduce a three-week lockdown in response to the rising number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at a briefing on March 18.
The lockdown in Kyiv will run through April 9. Another large Ukrainian city, Lviv, introduced a lockdown a day earlier.
Vaccination in Ukraine began on Feb. 27 and by March 19, a total of 92,713 people have received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by India’s Serum Institute.
In the past 24 hours, the largest number of vaccinations was recorded in the city of Kyiv (890) and Kherson Oblast (770).
To date, Ukraine has received 500,000 doses of vaccine produced by India’s Serum Institute. Ukraine has ordered a total of 17 million doses from India, including vaccines developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical AstraZeneca and U.S. biotech firm Novavax. Altogether, Ukraine expects to receive around 22 million doses in 2021.
Ukraine’s daily new COVID-19 cases and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the most accurate way of diagnosing the novel coronavirus, between Feb. 1, 2021 and March 18, 2021. All data was released by the Ministry of Health. (Kyiv Post)
On March 1, the Health Ministry started accepting online and telephone applications from Ukrainians who want to be put on the waiting list for the vaccine. Over 250,000 people signed up as of March 14.
Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said that Ukraine’s vaccination drive is unacceptably slow and he will personally intervene. The government had planned for 10,000 vaccinations per day in the first weeks, while in reality, the pace is 5-10 times slower.
Meanwhile, Ukraine remains in adaptive quarantine, where each oblast is assigned one of four epidemiological levels, depending on the COVID-19 situation there. There are green, yellow, orange and red levels. A red status means that a lockdown will be imposed locally.
Cities in the orange zone must order clubs and restaurants to shut down at night. Furthermore, 50% of seats at restaurants must be empty, and museums, libraries, and shopping centers must have no more than one person per 10 square meters.
Five regions are now in the red zone, including the city of Kyiv, and four oblasts – Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsy and Zakarpattia. They have had to shut down all entertainment businesses and restaurants until further notice because of spikes in the numbers of cases. On March 16, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said that Kyiv and Vinnytsia Oblast could soon be declared red zones as well.
On March 4, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine has entered the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prime minister didn’t rule out the possibility of another nationwide lockdown. Ukraine had only two lockdowns: in March-May 2020, and in January 2021.
