Ukraine has recorded the first death of a patient with the latest and most transmissible COVID-19 variant, Delta, in Kyiv’s Oleksandrivska Clinical Hospital, Liudmyla Antonenko, the hospital’s chief doctor told the Kyiv TV channel on July 27.
Ukraine confirmed its first two cases of COVID-19 infection with the Delta variant on June 23, in a woman and a teenager after they returned to Kyiv from Russia.
As of the afternoon of July 28, there were 17 patients with the laboratory-confirmed Delta strain in Ukraine: in Kyiv, Lviv and Uzhhorod. Most of them tested positive for the Delta strain after visiting Russia.
Russia has been experiencing a record spike in COVID-19 deaths in July, with officials blaming the increase on the Delta variant.
According to Antonenko, the epidemiological situation may worsen in Kyiv after thousands of people attended a Christian procession marking the anniversary of Kyivan Rus’s baptism on July 27. Organized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the procession might have involved Russian residents.
“I think that there will be a big rise in the disease rate,” Antonenko said.
According to the World Health Organization, Delta is the most transmissible COVID-19 strain yet, spreading about two to three times faster than the first strain of the virus. First detected in India in December, the variant has since spread across the world. It has been confirmed in 105 countries, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Delta now dominates infections in the U.S. and most of Europe.
The Delta strain is likely to ignite another wave of COVID-19 in Ukraine, predicted to possibly start in late August, said Jarno Habicht, head of the World Health Organization’s office in Ukraine on July 26.
