Ukraine has registered 876 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. on June 25.
The total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic is over 2.2 million.
In the past 24 hours, 2,405 COVID-19 patients have recovered and 53 have died.
Since the start of the pandemic, 52,234 people have died in Ukraine and over 2.1 million people have recovered from the disease.
The largest numbers of new cases have been recorded in the city of Kyiv (196), Zaporizhzhya Oblast (72), Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (63), Kharkiv Oblast (56) and Donetsk Oblast (53).
Ukrainian laboratories have carried out 19,481 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 9,160 antibody tests in the past 24 hours.
Over 10.7 million PCR tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic.
State of vaccination
Vaccination in Ukraine began on Feb. 24, and by June 23, over 1.8 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine, while 490,376 people received both doses.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 96,180 people received the vaccine, including 55,210 who received the second dose.
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. The Health Ministry accepts online and telephone applications from Ukrainians who want to be put on the waiting list for the vaccine.
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.
The schedule of Kyiv’s mass vaccination center may be affected by Constitution Day, celebrated on June 28.
Ukraine currently vaccinates its people with Pfizer, Sinovac, and AstraZeneca vaccines.
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 is set to receive the first 500,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in June 2021, 4.5 million doses in July-September, and the remaining 15 million doses before the end of the year, according to Stepanov.
Ukraine received 705,600 doses of AstraZeneca on June 4. These vaccines will mostly be used to inoculate those who received their first dose of AstraZeneca before.
The latest delivery of vaccines took place on June 9, when 66,690 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, purchased with state funds, were delivered to Ukraine. A day before UNICEF delivered 117,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to Ukraine as part of the global COVAX initiative. Ukraine will get 473,850 doses of Pfizer vaccine in this fashion.
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 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.
Ukraine is also among the countries set to receive a share of the 25 million doses pledged by the U.S. in humanitarian aid, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced on June 4.
No lockdowns
Due to the decreasing daily new cases of coronavirus, the Cabinet of Ministers on June 7 eased the restrictions, allowing businesses like 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.
New coronavirus variant
On June 23, the most transmissible COVID-19 variant yet, Delta, was detected in Ukraine.
Delta is around 60% more transmissible than the already highly infectious Alpha, also known as the “British” variant, first detected in the United Kingdom in December. It also may lead to higher rates of hospitalization. The Delta variant has already spread to at least 92 countries, and will soon become the dominant variant in the world, scientists warn.
Ukraine might soon face a fourth wave of coronavirus infections but the Ukrainian government is worried that the medical laboratories are not well-equipped to detect the new Delta variant.