Ukraine has registered 2,533 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. on May 22, bringing the total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic to over 2.1 million.
In the past 24 hours, 8,937 COVID-19 patients have recovered and 89 have died.
Since the start of the pandemic, 49,369 people have died in Ukraine and more than 1.9 million people have recovered from the disease.
The largest numbers of new cases have been recorded in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (453), Kharkiv Oblast (188), Donetsk Oblast (182), Kyiv Oblast (178), and Kherson Oblast (148).
Ukrainian laboratories have carried out 16, 285 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 3, 730 antibody tests in the past 24 hours. Nearly 10 million PCR tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic.
In the past 24 hours, 1,701 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19.
Vaccination
Vaccination in Ukraine began on Feb. 24, and by May 22, a total of 978,031 people have received the first dose of the vaccine, while 74,783 people received two doses of the vaccine.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 3, 503 people received the vaccine, including 2,481 who received the second dose.
To date, Ukraine has received less than 2 million doses of vaccine, but more deliveries are scheduled in the coming months.
U.S. pharmaceutical Pfizer will provide 20 million doses of vaccine to Ukraine by the end of 2021, according to the now-former Health Minister Maksym Stepanov.
Ukraine will receive the first 500,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in May-June 2021, 4.5 million doses in July-September, and the remaining 15 million doses before the end of the year, according to Stepanov.
On April 23, the country received 367,200 doses in a new batch of AstraZeneca vaccines produced in South Korea.
On May 14, Lithuania announced it would gift Ukraine 100,000 doses, but did not specify the brand.
The Health Ministry accepts online and telephone applications from Ukrainians who want to be put on the waiting list for the vaccine. Since April 24, Ukraine has been in the second stage of the vaccination campaign, inoculating medical staff, military service members and people over 80 years old. However, people who fall outside these categories may be able to receive surplus doses.
UNICEF and WHO will deliver nearly half a million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Ukraine as part of the COVAX initiative by the end of this week the Ministry of Health announced.
The Ministry of Health and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) signed a $90 million agreement to launch the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Vaccination in Ukraine project in Ukraine, as announced by the Ministry of Health on its Facebook page on May 18.
Forty million dollars are to be used to purchase the vaccine, $30 million will be allocated for the deployment of vaccination against COVID-19, with the remaining funds used to strengthen the capacity of testing for COVID-19.
Lockdown
Currently, all oblasts in Ukraine are in the “yellow” quarantine zone, with the exception of Donetsk oblast, which remains “orange”.
None of Ukraine’s 24 oblasts are in the “red” quarantine zone, meaning that none of them have lockdowns.
From March 20 to April 30, Kyiv was under lockdown in response to the rising number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. Most quarantine restrictions were lifted on May 1 in Kyiv. Restaurants, stores and gyms have reopened.
On May 7, Stepanov said that Ukraine had overcome the third wave of COVID-19.