Ukraine has registered 623 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. on July 15, bringing the total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic to over 2.24 million.
In the past 24 hours, 589 COVID-19 patients have recovered and 20 have died.
Over 2.1 million people have recovered from COVID-19 and 52,685 have died since the pandemic hit Ukraine.
In the past 24 hours, Ukrainian laboratories have carried out 19,536 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 8,892 antibody tests. Over 11.1 million PCR tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic.
The largest numbers of new cases have been recorded in the city of Kyiv (177), Odesa Oblast (57), Zhytomyr Oblast (33), Donetsk Oblast (32), and Kyiv Oblast (31).
State of vaccination
Vaccination in Ukraine began on Feb. 24 and by July 14, over 2.4 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine, while over 1.3 million have received both doses.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 108,759 people received the vaccine, including 47,179 who received the second dose, completing their vaccination.
In several cities, including Kyiv, anyone registered to be vaccinated through the government app Diya can get vaccinated on the weekends at one of the country’s 50 mass vaccination centers. Kyiv’s mass vaccination center is based inside the International Exhibition Center near the Livoberezhna metro station.
Ukraine currently vaccinates its people with Pfizer, Sinovac, and AstraZeneca vaccines. On July 5, Ukraine authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for use.
Ukraine has received over 5 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 since the start of its vaccination campaign, the Ministry of Health announced on July 5. Nearly 8 million doses are expected by the end of July.
U.S. pharmaceutical Pfizer will provide 20 million doses of vaccine to Ukraine by the end of 2021, according to the health ministry. The health minister announced on July 12 that the Pfizer vaccine will be available to anyone who wants it by the end of July.
The latest delivery of vaccines took place on July 9, when 500,000 Sinovac vaccines, purchased with state funds, were delivered to Ukraine.
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, as announced by the Ministry of Health on its Facebook page on May 18. Forty million dollars are to be used to purchase vaccines, $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.
The U.S. has also promised to give Ukraine some of the 500 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that it plans to donate to poor countries. Earlier, the U.S. said it would give Ukraine a share of 25 million doses pledged in humanitarian aid.
Quarantine restrictions eased
Due to the decreasing daily new cases of coronavirus, the Cabinet of Ministers on June 7 eased the restrictions, allowing businesses such as restaurants to work around the clock.
Mass events will be allowed if all participants and organizers of the event have a negative COVID-19 test conducted no more than 72 hours before the event, or proper vaccination documentation.
The government has also changed the requirements for regions to be considered a “green” quarantine zone. Now, regions are “green” if their number of new infections does not exceed 75 per 100,000 people in the past 14 days, the rate of COVID-19 infection is less than 4%, the number of PCR and antigen test results do not fall under 300 per 100,000 in the past seven days and no other region is in the “red” zone.
Currently, all oblasts in Ukraine are in the “green” quarantine zone.