Ukraine has registered 6,237 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. on Feb. 18, bringing the total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic to over 1.2 million.
In the past 24 hours, 5,225 COVID-19 patients have recovered and 163 have died.
Over 1.1 million people have recovered from COVID-19 and 24,852 have died since the pandemic hit Ukraine.
There are currently 128,169 active cases in Ukraine.
In the past 24 hours, Ukrainian laboratories have carried out 28,941 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 15,056 antibody tests. Over 6.6 million PCR tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic.
The largest numbers of new cases have been recorded in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (799), Vinnytsia Oblast (514), the city of Kyiv (513), Zakarpattia Oblast (500) and Zhytomyr Oblast (438).
Ukraine’s daily new COVID-19 cases and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the most accurate way of diagnosing the novel coronavirus, between Jan. 1, 2020 and Feb. 17, 2021. All data was released by the Ministry of Health.
On Jan. 25, Ukraine reopened after the lockdown that has been in place since Jan. 8. The country was under the “orange” quarantine level since the end of the lockdown. The work of all non-essential businesses has now resumed.
Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said that the ministry had no plans to impose a new lockdown in March or April because the January lockdown yielded good results and stabilized the situation.
Still, on Feb. 17, Stepanov said that Ukraine will extend its COVID-19 quarantine restrictions until April 30.
Starting from Feb. 24, the country returns to the so-called “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. Red level means that a lockdown will be imposed locally.
Initially, all of Ukraine will be assigned the yellow level. It means that most of the current restrictions will stay in force.
Read more: Ukraine extends quarantine until April 30, updates restrictions
According to the law passed by the government on Jan. 13, any business servicing customers has to stop refuse service to anyone who’s not wearing a mask and call the police if the person refuses to put it on. A mask has to cover both the nose and mouth.
While numerous countries started vaccinating their citizens in mid-December, Ukraine still hasn’t started one.
Ukraine’s daily COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries from Jan. 1, 2021 to Feb. 17, 2021. All data was released by the Ministry of Health.
The vaccination was expected to start on Feb. 15. However, the Health Ministry has postponed it due to “logistical and bureaucratic issues,” according to Stepanov. Still, he said, it will start “within days.”
As part of the global COVAX initiative, Ukraine will receive 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in February, followed by up to 3.7 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine within six months. Medical workers who treat COVID-19 and front-line troops in eastern Ukraine will be the first in line for free vaccination.
Read also: Everything to know about COVID vaccination in Ukraine
According to a survey by Rating sociological group, 52% of Ukrainians would not take the coronavirus vaccine, even if it was free.
