Ukraine has registered 967 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. on June 18. The total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic is over 2.2 million.
In the past 24 hours, 2,312 COVID-19 patients have recovered and 50 have died.
Since the start of the pandemic, 51,952 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 (207), Kharkiv Oblast (68), Donetsk Oblast (61), Kyiv Oblast (54) and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (50) .
Ukrainian laboratories have carried out 25,888 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 9,342 antibody tests in the past 24 hours. Over 10.6 million PCR tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic.
In the past 24 hours, 585 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19.
State of vaccination
Vaccination in Ukraine began on Feb. 24, and by June 16, over 1.6 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine, while 337,345 people received both doses.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 57,970 people received the vaccine, including 23,743 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 in the left-bank part of the city. Here’s how to get vaccinated there.
Read also: Online registration for COVID-19 vaccine launched in Kyiv
Ukraine currently vaccinates its people with Pfizer, Sinovac, and AstraZeneca vaccines.
So far, Ukraine has received over 4 million doses of various vaccines but expects more supplies soon.
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 in Ukraine. A day before UNICEF delivered 117,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to Ukraine as part of the global COVAX initiative.
A total of 473,850 doses of Pfizer vaccine will be delivered to Ukraine during this and early next week.
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.
Quarantine restrictions eased
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.