Ukraine has registered 6,234 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. on Sept. 18. The total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic is over 2.3 million.
In the past 24 hours, 1,763 COVID-19 patients have recovered and 79 have died.
More than 2.2 million people have recovered from COVID-19 and 54,829 have died since the pandemic hit Ukraine.
In the past 24 hours, Ukrainian laboratories have carried out 35,713 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 9,235 antibody tests. Over 12.4 million PCR tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic.
The largest numbers of new cases have been recorded in Kharkiv Oblast (761), Lviv Oblast (585), Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (434), the city of Kyiv (416) and Odesa Oblast (399).
Ukraine’s daily COVID-19 cases, deaths, and recoveries from July 1, 2021, to Sept. 17, 2021.
State of vaccination
As of Sept. 17, 5.1 million Ukrainians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and additionally, over 1.1 million people have received the first of the two doses. The vaccination campaign started on Feb. 24.
In the last 24 hours, 78,269 people received their first dose of vaccine, while 54,290 received the second dose, completing their vaccination.
Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko has announced that the fifth and final stage of COVID-19 vaccination in Ukraine began on July 21. This means that all willing adults are now able to get a jab.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Health also now allows voluntary COVID-19 vaccination of children over the age of 12 with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, starting July 30.
Children over 12 can get the Pfizer vaccine if they have a high risk of severe disease related to COVID-19, are traveling abroad where the vaccine is mandatory or have already received the first dose of Pfizer in another country.
Ukraine currently vaccinates its people with Pfizer, Sinovac, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. On July 5, Ukraine authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for use.
On July 21, Kyiv’s primary mass vaccination center started offering Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to everyone, as well as CoronaVac.
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.
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 the Pfizer 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.
Ukraine was waiting for 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca and 10 million doses of Novavax. However, the Serum Institute was not able to export the promised vials due to a dire local situation. Thus Ukraine has suspended its contract with the Indian vaccine manufacturer.
Ukraine’s daily new COVID-19 cases and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the most accurate way of diagnosing the novel coronavirus, between July 1, 2021 and Sept. 17, 2021. All data was released by the Ministry of Health.
The Cabinet of Ministers on June 7 eased the restrictions, allowing businesses such as restaurants to work around the clock.
Mass events are 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.
On Sept. 6, Health Minister Victor Lyashko warned Ukrainians of a possible upcoming COVID-19 lockdown, with the country expected to move to ‘yellow’ restriction by Sept, 13. According to information from the official “Coronavirus_Info” telegram channel, ‘yellow’ and ‘red’ restrictions will not apply to those who have been fully vaccinated.
“This week we started working with all ministries to change the quarantine norms in order to maintain a balance between protecting the population from the coronavirus and its well-being,” Lyashko stated. “Following the practice of European countries, as well as the United States, we propose to bring the quality of life of the vaccinated population against COVID-19 back to normal”
According to the post, those who have received at least one dose of the vaccine will be exempt from ‘yellow’ restrictions, and those with two, from ‘red’.
On Sept. 9, deputy health minister Igor Kuzin in an interview with UNICEF announced the launch of internal COVID documents. This will comprise of a “green” certificate for those who have been fully vaccinated, and a “yellow” certificate for those that have received their first dose.
The certificate will likely be valid for up to 6 months, according to the minister, before it must be redownloaded. The internal covid document will be in the form of a QR code and vaccinated people will be able to use them to gain exceptions from lockdown restrictions and to visit businesses.
According to a new Cabinet of Ministers resolution announced on Sept. 13, people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 will be exempt from quarantine restrictions. Businesses will be allowed to turn away non-vaccinated customers.
Travel restrictions
Starting early August, Ukraine came back to asking everyone arriving in Ukraine — both foreigners and returning citizens — to take a COVID-19 test when entering the country to minimize the risk of spreading the most widespread coronavirus Delta variant.
The exceptions are vaccinated Ukrainians and foreigners with COVID-19 vaccine certificates. As of Aug. 18, only one shot is required to be able to skip PCR tests or self-isolation on arrival.
For travelers vaccinated with vaccines that haven’t been approved by the WHO, such as the ones from Russia and India, self-isolation will be mandatory if they stayed in either of those countries for more than seven days.
Travel restrictions should be checked on authorities’ websites prior to traveling.
