Ukraine has registered 9,012 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. on March 14. The total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic is approaching 1.5 million.
In the past 24 hours, 2,743 COVID-19 patients have recovered and 145 have died. Over 1.2 million people have recovered from COVID-19 and 28,303 have died since the pandemic hit Ukraine.
In the past 24 hours, 4,216 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19.
Ukrainian laboratories have carried out 31,598 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, 6,132 antibody tests and 22,792 rapid antigen tests in the past day. Over 7 million PCR tests have been conducted in Ukraine since the start of the pandemic.
The largest numbers of new cases have been recorded in the Zhytomyr Oblast (923), Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (660), Vinnytsia Oblast (634), Lviv Oblast (590) and Kharkiv Oblast (569).
Vaccination in Ukraine began on Feb. 27 and by March 14, a total of 51,137 people have received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by India’s Serum Institute.
In the past 24 hours, the largest number of vaccinations was recorded in the Luhansk Oblast (370).
To date, Ukraine has received 500,000 doses of vaccine produced by India’s Serum Institute. Ukraine has ordered a total of 17 million doses from India, including vaccines developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical AstraZeneca and U.S. biotech firm Novavax. Altogether, Ukraine expects to receive around 22 million doses in 2021.
On March 1, the Health Ministry started accepting online and telephone applications from Ukrainians who want to be put on the waiting list for the vaccine. Only 155,000 people signed up as of March 9.
Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said that Ukraine’s vaccination drive is unacceptably slow and he will personally intervene. The government had planned for 10,000 vaccinations per day by the end of last week.
According to a law passed by the government on Jan. 13, businesses have to refuse to service any customer 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.
Starting Feb. 24, the country returned to a 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. A red status means that a lockdown will be imposed locally.
Initially, all of Ukraine was designated yellow, meaning most of the current restrictions will stay in force.
The Ministry of Health has designated the city of Kyiv as “orange” on March 6.
Cities in the orange zone must order clubs and restaurants to shut down at night. Furthermore, 50% of seats at restaurants must be empty, and museums, libraries, and shopping centers must have no more than one person per 10 square meters.
Currently, most cafes and restaurants that are crowded during the day and in the evenings, close before midnight.
Four regions are now in the red zone, including Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsy and Zakarpattia. They have had to shut down all entertainment businesses and restaurants until further notice because of spikes in the numbers of cases.
On March 4, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine has entered the third wave of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The prime minister didn’t rule out the possibility of a future nationwide lockdown.
“It’s obvious that the third wave of the pandemic has started. Strict restrictions in Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi oblasts have already been introduced,” Shmyhal said during his press conference.
“A few more regions are on the way (to new restrictions),” he added.
